Charlotte Hemp Professionals Face Uncertain Future Under New Federal Rules
Olivia Merlock built a life in Charlotte through hemp, but new federal rules could force her to choose between the city she loves and her dream career
For Olivia Merlock, cannabis is not just a lifestyle but a livelihood.
Now a senior manager with the Charlotte-based Hemp & Tea Company, the Vermont native entered the hemp industry in 2022 shortly after moving to Charlotte from South Carolina. She was working in the corporate world when she applied for a job with The Happy Camper Cannabis Dispensary and Lounge on a whim, a move that would change her life.
“When I got that job, within six months I quit my corporate job and went full-time with them,” she recalled. “I knew pretty immediately like, this is where I will be for the rest of my life.”
Four years later, she has come off of the SSRI antidepressant medication she was on at the time. Since joining the team at Hemp & Tea Co., she said she has become more interested in holistic living. She’s also fallen in love with the Queen City. Merlock and her wife are Charlotte FC season ticket holders and enjoy catching the wide range of concerts that come to the city.
“I was always meant to be in Charlotte,” she told Queen City Nerve.
However, the life she’s built here is now at risk of being pulled out from under her as new federal regulations loom. Put in place by a federal government spending deal passed in November 2025, the regulations are set to take effect in November 2026, which could place her professional future and that of the company where she’s found a home in jeopardy.
“My dream is to be in the cannabis industry,” she said. “I don’t ever want to leave Charlotte, but I’ve had to have a conversation where it’s like, come November, do I stay in Charlotte or do I give up my dream? And that is something that’s very personal for me because I have to let one of those things that I absolutely adore go. Either I have to leave Charlotte or I have to give up my dream.”
How Hemp & Tea Co. built its Charlotte footprint
Founded in 2019, Hemp & Tea Co. opened its first location just months before COVID-19 clamped down on the city and the rest of the world. It came out of that struggle to flourish in a state that saw the hemp industry grow exponentially into a billion-dollar industry following the 2018 passage of the Farm Bill.
The company now has eight locations in the Charlotte area — four in Charlotte proper and shops in Huntersville, Belmont, Mooresville, and Concord. The company takes a holistic approach to hemp, centering the mental and physical health benefits of hemp tea.
“We really like to hone in on the productive stoner, if you will, and teach people, educate them that this plant can be used for health benefits but also artistic benefits, or a little boost in your mood, a little boost in your day,” Merlock said. “And that can be Delta-9 or CBD. So pairing that with the tea as well is just an overall holistic and mindful approach to both the tea plant and the cannabis plant.”
She shared that the clientele at Hemp & Tea Co. is a bit older and more health-focused than at previous companies she has worked for.
While the store does offer a line of teas from India, China and other countries that are not blended with hemp, she estimated that about 85% of the products sold by the company are hemp-infused and would be deemed illegal by the new standards set in place by the November spending bill.
Merlock believes strongly in better regulating hemp through licensing and third-party testing so that convenience stores and other unlicensed actors can’t make mysterious products accessible to children.
“They’re not getting the education, they’re just getting high,” Merlock said of consumers left vulnerable by North Carolina’s unclear laws. “Some of these kids out here are just getting hurt from it. So Hemp & Tea firmly believes in regulation and we’re on the side of that. But of course, a ban would just tear lives down and I think that if you’re on the right side of things, you should be wanting to build them up and not tear them down.”
Read more: CBHD Lobbies for NC Hemp as ‘Industry Killer’ Looms
While Merlock said her boss Michael Modia, managing partner and cofounder of Hemp & Tea Co., is confident the business can survive even if the new federal laws are allowed to take effect without any state action to override them, she estimated that they would have to close six out of their eight locations based on the percentage of products that would be deemed illegal.
She voiced her frustration with alcohol and pharmaceutical lobbyists who have tried to block hemp and cannabis legalization at every corner due to the effects its use can have on their industries.
Olivia Merlock’s choice between Charlotte and her career
Merlock said she was presented with an opportunity to open a dispensary of her own for a respectable cost early this year. The offer was an opportunity to go into business for herself, a chance to live her dream, but looming federal ban on hemp products made it impossible for her to follow through.
“In that time I was like, ‘Well, that’s only 11 months ‘til November. Who knows what’s going to happen at that point?’”
Merlock speculates that, if no action is taken and the new federal laws take effect in North Carolina, she may return to her home state of Vermont, where marijuana is legalized. She hates the winters there, however, so California is another option.
Either way, it would be an agonizing decision to leave the city she has come to love.
“If you choose where you want to stay and where you want to stay does not allow that, then unfortunately it’s just something you have to put to rest,” she said. “That kills me to say, and it kills me to know that all the like-minded individuals that I’ve met, all the people that have put so much effort into saving this industry, who put their livelihoods in there, are thinking the same. I hope that one day we can all figure out a way to band together and continue living the way that we know is the right way to live.”
