{"id":14882,"date":"2025-03-29T10:00:12","date_gmt":"2025-03-29T14:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.carolinaattorneys.com\/blog\/?p=14882"},"modified":"2025-12-16T18:41:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T23:41:18","slug":"marijuana-or-hemp-the-0-3-thc-threshold-in-nc-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.carolinaattorneys.com\/blog\/marijuana-or-hemp-the-0-3-thc-threshold-in-nc-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Marijuana or Hemp | The 0.3% THC Threshold in NC Law"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Under North Carolina law, \u201cmarijuana\u201d is a controlled substance defined to exclude legal hemp. Following the 2018 federal Farm Bill, NC amended its statutes to align with the 0.3% THC <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-14885 lazyload\" src=\"\/jshared\/img\/icons\/spinner.svg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.carolinaattorneys.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/NC-HEMP-LAWS-300x168.webp\" alt=\"NC-HEMP-LAWS\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.carolinaattorneys.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/NC-HEMP-LAWS-300x168.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.carolinaattorneys.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/NC-HEMP-LAWS-1024x574.webp 1024w, https:\/\/www.carolinaattorneys.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/NC-HEMP-LAWS-768x431.webp 768w, https:\/\/www.carolinaattorneys.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/NC-HEMP-LAWS-1000x561.webp 1000w, https:\/\/www.carolinaattorneys.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/NC-HEMP-LAWS-214x120.webp 214w, https:\/\/www.carolinaattorneys.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/NC-HEMP-LAWS.webp 1312w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/> threshold. Specifically, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">hemp<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is defined as cannabis (any part of the plant, including derivatives) with \u22640.3% delta-9 THC by dry weight. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Marijuana<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> covers cannabis plants or extracts except those meeting the hemp definition.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In effect, cannabis with more than 0.3% THC is illegal \u201cmarijuana,\u201d while cannabis at or below 0.3% THC is legal hemp. This distinction can be critical in criminal cases \u2013 it means a defendant should not be convicted of a marijuana offense for possessing hemp. However, because hemp and marijuana look and smell identical, this threshold poses challenges in court\u200b.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Juries may benefit from guidance to avoid conflating legal hemp with illegal marijuana. Defense attorneys have increasingly sought jury instructions to clarify this 0.3% THC requirement as part of the definition of the crime.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"read_more_link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.carolinaattorneys.com\/blog\/marijuana-or-hemp-the-0-3-thc-threshold-in-nc-law\/\"  title=\"Continue Reading Marijuana or Hemp | The 0.3% THC Threshold in NC Law\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Under North Carolina law, \u201cmarijuana\u201d is a controlled substance defined to exclude legal hemp. Following the 2018 federal Farm Bill, NC amended its statutes to align with the 0.3% THC threshold. Specifically, hemp is defined as cannabis (any part of the plant, including derivatives) with \u22640.3% delta-9 THC by dry weight. Marijuana covers cannabis plants [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14884,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1527,1525,1534,1528,1531,1526,1529,1535,1533,1430,1530,1532],"class_list":["post-14882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-criminal-defense","tag-0-3-thc-proof-north-carolina","tag-0-3-thc-threshold-in-nc-law","tag-affirmative-defenses","tag-hemp-vs-marijuana-legal-defense","tag-is-hemp-legal-in-north-carolina","tag-marijuana-jury-instruction-nc","tag-nc-cannabis-jury-trial","tag-nc-pattern-jury-instructions-hemp-vs-marijuana","tag-pattern-jury-instructions-for-marijuana","tag-powers-law-firm","tag-proving-thc-content-in-court","tag-whats-the-difference-between-marijuana-and-hemp"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Marijuana or Hemp | The 0.3% THC Threshold in NC Law &#8212; Carolina Criminal Defense &amp; DUI Lawyer Updates &#8212;<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Does NC law require proof that marijuana exceeds 0.3% THC? Jury instructions, legal defenses, and THC burden of proof in cannabis cases\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.carolinaattorneys.com\/blog\/marijuana-or-hemp-the-0-3-thc-threshold-in-nc-law\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Marijuana or Hemp | The 0.3% THC Threshold in NC Law &#8212; Carolina Criminal Defense &amp; DUI Lawyer Updates &#8212;\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Does NC law require proof that marijuana exceeds 0.3% THC? 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