COLUMBIA — South Carolinians’ hopes for legalized medical cannabis has likely been snuffed out this year.
The S.C. House of Representatives adjourned May 9 without spending a single moment debating a decade-old proposal by Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, to legalize medical marijuana.
A House ad hoc committee appointed to study the legislation adjourned April 30 without taking a vote on the bill.
Rep. Sylleste Davis, the Moncks Corner Republican who chairs the committee, told reporters after the hearing the group is unlikely to meet again in the few working days left before the end of the 2024 legislative session — a likely indication the House will once again decline to act on the bill despite it passing an oftentimes more deliberative Senate two separate times over the past three years.
“We just don’t have a lot of time,” Davis told reporters. “But I mean, I do think this was a worthwhile effort. It certainly isn’t time wasted. We learned a lot today and got some good information. And we’re just gonna have to see how this other thing plays out.”
The “other thing” Davis referred to was news that broke earlier in the day that the federal Drug Enforcement Administration was planning to reschedule marijuana from a dangerous, Schedule I narcotic to the less severe Schedule III, a classification often reserved for prescription narcotics with low potential for addiction.
But even then, the latest news out of Washington, D.C., would likely have little bearing on the South Carolina bill, which its sponsor has often referred to as the “most conservative” medical cannabis legislation in the United States.
The measure allows only a limited number of people suffering from a set number of debilitating or terminal conditions such as cancer, colitis, sickle cell anemia or severe neurological disease to access the drug.
Also, the drug cannot be sold in smokeable flower form and can only be consumed via an unflavored edible, tincture or vaporizer. It would be a felony for anyone without a prescription to consume it.
Additionally, the product must be produced in a state-licensed and regulated facility, and it can only be dispensed by a licensed pharmacist. Anyone responsible for the care of a medical cannabis patient would have to be fingerprinted and undergo a criminal background check by the State Law Enforcement Division as a condition of them receiving a medical marijuana card, which is valid for one year.
By the time the General Assembly will adjourn this year, 13 states will have legalized medical marijuana, while an additional 24 states will have legalized marijuana for both recreational and medicinal use.
South Carolina’s legislation, called the Compassionate Care Act, is also one of the most-scrutinized pieces of legislation lawmakers have considered this session. The ad hoc committee hearing concluded after two days of testimony from 27 separate witnesses, while the Senate passed the bill after several days of floor debate.
Davis expressed frustration afterward.
“We passed this in the Senate beginning of February,” he said. “It sat for 2½ months over in that committee, they did nothing with it. And they scheduled a hearing with three weeks of the session left to go. That’s not honest debate. That’s not giving the public that debate they deserve on this issue.”
Its opponents have been vocal, with many arguing the bill creates a likely pipeline to a recreational marijuana program in the Palmetto State.
Law enforcement turned out to staunchly oppose the bill, as they have done in the past, at an earlier meeting of the ad hoc committee April 23. The most vocal opponent was SLED Chief Mark Keel.
“This bill does not follow that tradition of the medical model, which is why, in my opinion, it is not about medicine. This bill is about legalizing marijuana in South Carolina,” Keel said. “Once we go down that road, we’re not going to be able to claw it back.”
The Greenville County sheriff and chiefs of police from Myrtle Beach, West Columbia and Chapin echoed his concerns.
During a later hearing on the bill April 30, anti-drug organizations and religious organizations clashed with medical cannabis advocates over whether decades of scientific study supported the thesis of marijuana as a safer alternative to opioids or as a dangerous narcotic that leads users to cardiovascular disease, psychosis or even a tendency to violence.
Some Republican House lawmakers appeared to want some version of the bill.
“It is impossible not to empathize with the stories that we hear from families,” state Rep. Mark Smith, R-Daniel Island, said to Keel during the April 23 hearing. “Is there a path or a lane that truly addresses the issue that’s tight as a tick, that doesn’t create a gateway to legalized marijuana in this state to truly address those issues? And I have to believe there is.”
Supporters of the bill, meanwhile, advocated for the bill with emotional and personal anecdotes. One woman who spoke April 30 described complications she’d experienced during her bout with multiple sclerosis that included seizures, muscle spasms and even temporary blindness. She’d taken numerous medications to treat the disease, including opioids, but did not have success until she was prescribed medical cannabis while living in New York City.
Another woman described caring for a 36-year-old son who had similar health issues and did not have success until he tried cannabis. Another claimed cannabis allowed him to get off a pain-management regimen that relied heavily on opioids he said was destroying his liver.
“It’s really gut-wrenching to have these patients come in who are admitted to our facility and they are screaming and begging me for relief from their symptoms,” said Stephanie Burgess, a family nurse practitioner who works at a hospice. Patients should have the option of medical cannabis, said Burgess, who is also an advocate for the Coalition for Access, which supports the bill.
Davis said this year’s failures are not the end of the issue.
“I’ll keep pushing this thing till we get it done,” he said. “And it’s gonna get done, because the last poll (on this issue) showed 83 percent of South Carolinians believe doctors ought to be the ones that decide, doctors should be empowered, that if a doctor thinks it’s in the patient’s best interest, that politicians are not standing in the way.”
