O’Neill is a Republican who is running for North Carolina attorney general in 2020. Montgomery is a Forsyth County Democrat who is serving his first term in the N.C. House.

O”Neill told the audience that his mother could have benefited from the medicinal marijuana before she died of cancer several years ago.

“It was hard to watch that,” O’Neill said of his mother’s illness. “And I was her primary caregiver.”

O’Neill said that his father, who is 90, was taken Tuesday to Duke University Hospital in Durham to be treated for cancer.

“If there was a medicinal marijuana bill that was out there, I would be all for it,” O’Neill said. “Unfortunately, I don’t get to vote, but I support that. I understand the benefits of it when you talk about medicinal use, and I understand how it can help in terms of appetite and those sorts of things.”

O’Neill also said many murders in Winston-Salem involve robberies and often times the killing of drug dealers who sold marijuana. The accused killers didn’t get high on marijuana before they committed their violent acts, O’Neill said.

“I’m just giving you the facts,” O’Neill said. “People are getting robbed over the marijuana, and potentially shot and killed.”