SC Senate panel advances bill to allow medical marijuana use
South Carolinians with some of the most debilitating medical problems would be able to buy and use marijuana, if a bill that advanced Wednesday becomes law.
A South Carolina Senate panel voted 9-5 on Wednesday to advance the bill to the full Senate for a vote, setting it up for possible debate in April.
Known as the “Compassionate Care Act,” the bipartisan backed legislation — S. 150 — sponsored by state Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, would allow for the licensed cultivation and sale of medical cannabis, adjoining South Carolina to 38 other states and Washington, states that eliminated criminal penalties for medical marijuana use, cultivation and distribution.
A handful of other states are considering similar legislation.
“I’ve spent six years years in good faith, listening to the objections and concerns and recommendations composed by every industry in this sector. And I have always attempted to draft a bill to accommodate those concerns,” Davis said.
“This is the most conservative medical cannabis bill in the country,” Davis added.
Davis told reporters after the hearing he feels optimistic about the bill’s chances in the Senate. Davis said he has done a whip count of the chamber’s 46 members and a majority of those senators say they will support his bill, giving the legislation a possibility of passing ahead of the Legislature’s April 10 crossover deadline.
Republican Gov. Henry McMaster has not explicitly backed the legislation, but last week said he has an “open mind” on medical marijuana. While he said he is not ruling it out, McMaster said he was “not ruling it in either.”
“It’s clear that it alleviates a lot of suffering,” he said at a recent Post and Courier Pints and Politics event.
The legislation puts restrictions on what medical conditions would be permitted to use the drug and that medical condition — whether it’s cancer, epilepsy, seizures, post-traumatic stress disorder — must be objectively approved by a licensed doctor. It also puts limits how many licensed cultivators can grow in the state and restricts the number of processing, transporting, testing and dispensing facilities that can open.
The legislation also would create an advisory board, giving the governor appointment power of 10 of the 11 members.
Next to that, the bill also creates a medical cannabis fund under the state’s health department that would cover medical university research costs, drug safety education programs and clinical trials.
Nearly all dollars collected would flow into the state’s main bank account, and it also directs the state’s health department to draft fees for anyone who wants to be a licensed cultivator, processor or a dispenser to cover the costs of the program.
The legislation does not include a cost study, though it does say that all medical marijuana products would fall under a 6% sales tax, making it unclear how much money the state could generate from medical marijuana sales.
Davis said the legislation is not intended to generate revenue for the state.
“This bill is not designed as a revenue raiser for the general fund,” Davis said. “It is designed to put medicine in the hands of people who need it.”
The bill’s sponsors — who include the Senate’s finance and judiciary chairmen — argue that medical marijuana can treat young and old people who may be suffering from debilitating medical conditions, such as seizures, cancer and neuropathic pain, reducing the need for over-the-counter medication.
But opponents, including the state’s chief law enforcement officer and lawmakers on the fence worry that marijuana could get into the wrong hands, or inspire the passage of a more expansive law allowing recreational use.
One major proposal that was eliminated in the bill two years ago to appease statewide law enforcement groups is that it removes the smoking of marijuana entirely, allowing oil and creams instead, for example.
“I know that some folks have found some relief in medical marijuana, but I know of a lot of folks that probably haven’t,” said state Sen. Kevin Johnson, D-Clarendon, who has for years firmly opposed the legislation, including this year.
“And I just want to be on record saying that I’m probably going to always be opposed to this bill as long as the Food and Drug Administration is opposed to it,” along with law enforcement and the South Carolina Medical Association, Johnson said.
Another senator questioned the legality of the bill and position of the federal government.
That talking point, Davis said, is moot, telling reporters that lawmakers falling on the Constitution were quick to back the state’s restrictive abortion law which falls in direct conflict with U.S. Supreme Court abortion precedent, Roe v. Wade.
“We’re going to deny them something that their doctor wants to give them because of some political reason back in 1971, that President Nixon wanted to stick it to a bunch of hippies out on the National Mall, that’s going to govern what we think a doc should be able to do?” Davis said. “That should be between a doctor and a patient, and any time politicians try to insert themselves into that relationship, it’s wrong.”
Though not a senator, behind Davis — quite literally — was Army veteran Rosemary Wallace, 59, who drove to Columbia from Rock Hill Wednesday to watch senators debate whether she and her Army veteran husband would some day be allowed to use medical marijuana legally after years of debilitating pain.
Without it, Wallace said she has had to resort to pain pills.
“We’re going to get there,” Wallace told Davis. “And, guess what, you’ve got the biggest mouth in the South to help you get there.”
This story was originally published March 31, 2021 at 11:38 AM.
