North Carolina state representative Kelly Alexander is in Raleigh this week. He said he’s planning to meet with other lawmakers to talk marijuana.

“It’s time now for the legislators in North Carolina to catch up with the people,” Alexander said.

He hopes to work with others to work toward potential bills in 2019 focusing on cannabis reform.

One of his ideas that came out of a public summer town hall is having a local option approach with cannabis.

“North Carolina has an ABC system that pretty much is the model,” Alexander said. “We have dry counties. We have wet counties. We have portions of counties that may be wet, and the rest of them are dry. All of those are driven by local option decisions. Either by the decisions of local-elected boards, or by votes of the people.”

Abner Brown with North Carolina NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) wants to create a conversation about cannabis, rallying with others for legalization.

“We’re going to set ourselves up for the best chance possible,” Brown said. “We’ve sent letters out and have contacted all of our elected officials in North Carolina, and those that were running, to get their responses about how they felt about cannabis reform.”

Brown said he and others plan to rally on Jones Street in Raleigh in January.

Some living in the Triangle said they’re for pot, as long as it benefits the community.

“I think there are certain things to be careful about, in terms of the limit when you’re driving,” Raleigh resident Asif Samad said. “I think there’s a lot of beneficial features to marijuana, medicinally certainly.”

Meanwhile, others are against the legalization of cannabis in the state.

Earlier this year, Rev. Mark Creech, the Executive Director of the Christian Action League, said in part, “It’s addictive and harmful for teenagers.”

Creech added, “We can and ought to be working to reduce the use and abuse of dangerous substances.”

Click to view the Christian Action League article with Creech’s statement.