Having already failed to approve an earlier version of the bill in 2022, state lawmakers hope this time around, the much-needed reform legislation will finally make it to the governor’s desk for his signature.
It has been an eventful start to 2024 for the South Carolina legislature, particularly as it pertains to hemp and cannabis legislation. Earlier this week, state officials announced a highly restrictive and controversial ban on all hemp-derived products containing CBD and synthetic, high-concentration forms of psychoactive cannabinoids, including delta-9, delta-8, and delta-10 THC. The ban includes stricter labeling guidelines for edible hemp products as well.
The timing of the announcement was of particular interest to hemp advocates and stakeholders, considering the state Senate passed a medical marijuana measure on the exact same day.
According to numerous local and national media outlets, senators gave initial approval to a not-so-new medical marijuana legalization bill on Tuesday, setting the stage for a final vote, which could send the measure to the House of Representatives before the end of the week.
The Senate passed the bill, sponsored by Sen. Tom Davis (R), on its second reading by a 26-17 vote. If the measure becomes law, it will enable patients with specific health conditions to access medical cannabis to treat their ailments.
This attempt by SC lawmakers is not the first time they have tried to pass legislation establishing a medicinal marijuana program in the Palmetto State. In 2022, Sen. Davis introduced a similar bill that came very close to passing. However, due to a procedural technicality, the legislation lost momentum and stalled out in the House.
The reform measure, entitled the Compassionate Care Act, would allow the sale of medical cannabis under some of the strictest guidelines in the country. Under Davis’ bill, patients would have access to marijuana only for specific therapeutic purposes and would be required to be under the care and direction of a physician. The legislation allows for some oral medications as well as ointments and creams. However, the bill prohibits the smoking of marijuana under any circumstances.
Having come so close the last time around, Sen. Davis is confident this version of the bill, which includes tighter restrictions on who can dispense the medicine, will not only pass the House and Senate but will also satisfy the state’s highly conservative Gov. Henry McMaster (R) and be signed into law.
"This is anything but rolling the dice. It is making the physician the gatekeeper. No patient can access cannabis unless that physician has a thorough inpatient diagnosis, consideration of all therapies, consideration of that patient's history, and that physician makes a determination that it is safe," Davis said during the debate last week.
"This is anything but rolling the dice. It is making the physician the gatekeeper. No patient can access cannabis unless that physician has a thorough inpatient diagnosis, consideration of all therapies, consideration of that patient's history, and that physician makes a determination that it is safe."
- SC State Senator Tom Davis (R), the bill's Sponsor
Cognizant of his party’s aversion to anything remotely resembling a stepping stone to the eventual passage of an adult-use legalization measure, Davis intentionally and loudly acknowledges just how restrictive and limited his medical marijuana bill is.
During last week’s initial debate on the bill, Davis said that his goal has always been to “come up with the most conservative medical cannabis bill in the country that empowered doctors to help patients—but at the same time tied itself to science, to addressing conditions for which there’s empirically based data saying that cannabis can be of medical benefit.”
"(The goal has always been to) come up with the most conservative medical cannabis bill in the country that empowered doctors to help patients—but at the same time tied itself to science, to addressing conditions for which there’s empirically based data saying that cannabis can be of medical benefit."
- SC State Senator Tom Davis (R), the bill's Sponsor
Unlike many other medical marijuana programs across the country, for patients to access cannabis from a licensed dispensary, they must receive a recommendation from a qualified doctor, and even then, they can only be prescribed medicine for certain qualifying conditions, such as terminal illnesses and chronic diseases where opioids are the standard of care.
Before voting on the bill, the Senate adopted two amendments to help ensure the necessary votes for approval.
There can be no more than three medical cannabis dispensaries located in any county.
Regulators cannot prevent the “accurate listing of ingredients on a cannabis product that is a beverage.”
In addition to these two modifications, senators also adopted an amendment clarifying that the measure will not require landlords or people who control property to allow the vaporization of cannabis products.
Despite these changes and addendums to the legislation, some extremely conservative lawmakers in the state are raising concerns about establishing a medical cannabis program. They contend it could lead to the slippery slope of enacting broader reform measures allowing for adult-use marijuana to become legal eventually.
However, Davis and other Republican supporters of the bill have characterized their own party’s stance on cannabis, particularly as it pertains to medicinal marijuana, as “an intellectually lazy position that doesn’t even try to present medical facts as they currently exist.”
Meanwhile, a poll released last year found that a substantial majority of South Carolina adults support legalizing marijuana for both medical (76%) and recreational (56%) use—a finding that U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) has promoted.
Whether or not the state legislature and governor’s office decide to enact this latest attempt by Sen. Davis and others to bring their state into the 21st century, it is curious that during the same week there is this renewed push to pass cannabis legalization reform, albeit severely restricted and limited, DHEC and other South Carolina officials announce an all-out war on hemp and its intoxicating derivative products.
This latest political and economic drama playing out currently in South Carolina seems to follow a familiar and disturbing pattern of a not-so-subtle attempt by state governments to lay waste to established hemp-based market sectors to make way for legal cannabis interests to come and take over all aspects of hemp/cannabis business opportunities.
If one were prone to believing in conspiracy theories, it might seem like there is an organized and concerted effort by Big Cannabis and its bought and paid-for political minions to crush the spirit and souls of hard-working and law-abiding hemp entrepreneurs all in the name of marketplace domination and good old-fashioned greed.