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South Carolina lawmakers and advocates aren\u2019t giving up the push to legalize medical marijuana just yet, and they\u2019re imploring leadership to take up a GOP-led reform bill ahead of a key legislative deadline that\u2019s approaching.<\/p>\n
At a press conference on Tuesday, supporters of the legislation from Sen. Tom Davis (R) stressed the urgency of getting the reform enacted this year, with a deadline coming up on April 10 to get the bill out of the Senate and over to the House for consideration this year.<\/p>\n
Davis gave an impassioned speech on the floor last week, disputing complaints from certain lawmakers that the bill was not adequately vetted to be placed on special order to be taken up.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is embarrassing that we can\u2019t do this,\u201d he said, pointing out that the S.C. Compassionate Care Act has been discussed in hearings over the course of eight years collectively, in more than a dozen subcommittees.<\/p>\n
\nThe bill most recently advanced through the Senate Medical Affairs Committee<\/a> last month and an earlier version cleared the full Senate last session<\/a> only to stall in the House over a procedural hiccup<\/a>.<\/p>\n While the sponsor\u2019s remarks gave the impression that the bill\u2019s fate was sealed for the year, there could be a last-ditch effort to revive it with a motion before the crossover deadline.<\/p>\n \u201cThis isn\u2019t the end. We hope to continue to work to pass this bill for the people of South Carolina,\u201d Sen. Penry Gustafson (R) said at a press conference with supporters of the legislation on Tuesday. \u201cI ask for people\u2019s patience. I think it\u2019s going to get through.\u201d<\/p>\n Rep. Joe Bustos (R) also spoke in support of moving the issue forward.<\/p>\n \u201cI urge our leadership to tackle this bill,\u201d he said<\/a>. \u201cGet it passed and let\u2019s get on with this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n Sen. Mike Fanning (D) noted that time is running short to save the legislation.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the Senate doesn\u2019t take action on this bill in 77 hours, it\u2019s dead for the year,\u201d he said at the press conference, at which military veterans and medical professionals also spoke.<\/p>\n If the measure doesn\u2019t clear the Senate by the crossover deadline, it could still pass the body later in the year but would not be eligible to be taken up on the House side until 2024, during the second half of the two-year session.<\/p>\n Answering media questions earlier today about the #MedicalMarijuana<\/a> bill now pending on the South Carolina Senate calendar. pic.twitter.com\/AkUmuwoMz1<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Tom Davis (@SenTomDavisSC) March 28, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Davis said on Twitter on Tuesday that the bill is essentially \u201ctreading water\u201d and that he will \u201ckeep trying to remove the impediments to letting it swim.\u201d<\/p>\n Treading water, in this context, and I will keep trying to remove the impediments to letting it swim.<\/p>\n \u2014 Tom Davis (@SenTomDavisSC) March 28, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Overall, the bill would allow patients to access cannabis from licensed dispensaries if they receive a doctor\u2019s recommendation for the treatment of qualifying conditions.<\/p>\n Here are the main provisions of the\u00a0proposal<\/a>:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cDebilitating medical conditions\u201d for which patients could receive a medical cannabis recommendation include cancer, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Crohn\u2019s disease, autism, a terminal illness where the patient is expected to live for less than one year and a chronic illness where opioids are the standard of care, among others.<\/p>\n The state Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) and Board of Pharmacy would be responsible for promulgating rules and licensing cannabis businesses, including dispensaries that would need to have a pharmacist on-site at all times of operation.<\/p>\n In an effort to prevent excess market consolidation, the bill has been revised to include language requiring regulators to set limits on the number of businesses a person or entity could hold more than five percent interest in, at the state-level and regionally.<\/p>\n A \u201cMedical Cannabis Advisory Board\u201d would be established, tasked with adding or removing qualifying conditions for the program. The legislation was revised from its earlier form to make it so legislative leaders, in addition to the governor, would be making appointments for the board.<\/p>\n Importantly, the bill omits language prescribing a tax on medical cannabis sales, unlike the last version. The inclusion of tax provisions resulted in the House rejecting the earlier bill because of procedural rules in the South Carolina legislature that require legislation containing tax-related measures to originate in that body rather than the Senate.<\/p>\n Smoking marijuana and cultivating the plant for personal use would be prohibited.<\/p>\n Doctors would be able to specify the amount of cannabis that a patient could purchase in a 14-day window, or they could recommend the default standard of 1,600 milligrams of THC for edibles, 8,200 milligrams for oils for vaporization and 4,000 milligrams for topics like lotions.<\/p>\n Edibles couldn\u2019t contain more than 10 milligrams of THC per serving.<\/p>\n There would also be packaging and labeling requirements to provide consumers with warnings about possible health risks. Products couldn\u2019t be packaged in a way that might appeal to children.<\/p>\n Patients could not use medical marijuana or receive a cannabis card if they work in public safety, commercial transportation or commercial machinery positions. That would include law enforcement, pilots and commercial drivers, for example.<\/p>\n Local governments would be able to ban marijuana businesses from operating in their area, or set rules on policies like the number of cannabis businesses that may be licensed and hours of operation. DHEC would need to take steps to prevent over-concentration of such businesses in a given area of the state.<\/p>\n Lawmakers and their immediate family members could not work for, or have a financial stake in, the marijuana industry until July 2029, unless they recuse themselves from voting on the reform legislation.<\/p>\n DHEC would be required to produce annual reports on the medical cannabis program, including information about the number of registered patients, types of conditions that qualified patients and the products they\u2019re purchasing and an analysis of how independent businesses are serving patients compared to vertically integrated companies.<\/p>\n \u2014 A poll released in November found that 78 percent of South Carolina adults, including a majority of Republicans,\u00a0want to see cannabis legalized for medical purposes<\/a>. Another 54 percent said that they\u2019re in favor of recreational legalization.<\/p>\n Marijuana reform also\u00a0played a role in the South Carolina gubernatorial race<\/a>\u00a0last year, which saw incumbent Gov. Henry McMaster (R) retain his seat over challenger Joe Cunningham, a former Democratic congressman.<\/p>\n McMaster attempted to dissuade voters from electing Cunningham, in part because of his opponent\u2019s support for marijuana legalization.<\/p>\n Previously, Cunningham was unseated in his congressional reelection race in 2020 by now-Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), who strongly supports cannabis legalization and\u00a0introduced a bill to end prohibition in 2021<\/a>.<\/p>\n In\u00a0a post-election interview with Marijuana Moment in November<\/a>, Mace weighed in on South Carolina cannabis policy, saying \u201cit\u2019s time for our state and move forward\u201d with medical marijuana legalization and that the \u201cvast majority of South Carolinians\u201d back the reform.<\/p>\n After Cunningham came out with a plan to legalize cannabis for medical and recreational purposes, South Carolina Republican Party Chairman Drew McKissick voiced opposition and said the Democratic candidate wants to \u201cplay with fire\u201d by embracing the policy change. But notably, Davis\u00a0came to Cunningham\u2019s defense in 2021<\/a>.<\/p>\n Davis said at the time that his own party\u2019s stance, particularly as it concerns medical cannabis, is \u201can intellectually lazy position that doesn\u2019t even try to present medical facts as they currently exist.\u201d<\/p>\n After Davis\u2019s Senate-passed medical cannabis bill was defeated in a House committee, he\u00a0tried another avenue for the reform proposal<\/a>, but that similarly failed on procedural grounds.<\/p>\n Colombian Lawmakers Advance Marijuana Legalization Bill, Aiming For Enactment This Year<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Max Pixel<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post South Carolina Medical Marijuana Legalization Bill\u2019s Fate In Question, But Supporters Are Making A Last-Ditch Push<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
South Carolina lawmakers and advocates aren\u2019t giving up the push to legalize medical marijuana just yet, and they\u2019re imploring leadership to take up a GOP-led reform bill ahead of a key legislative deadline that\u2019s approaching. At a press conference on Tuesday, supporters of the legislation from Sen. Tom Davis (R)Continue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":63185,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81,126],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63184"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63184"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63186,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63184\/revisions\/63186"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: South Carolina Medical Marijuana Legalization Bill\u2019s Fate In Question, But Supporters Are Making A Last-Ditch Push<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"