{"id":74562,"date":"2024-04-23T13:17:55","date_gmt":"2024-04-23T21:17:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2024\/04\/23\/south-carolina-house-panel-takes-up-senate-passed-medical-marijuana-legalization-bill-after-months-of-delay\/"},"modified":"2024-04-24T00:45:32","modified_gmt":"2024-04-24T08:45:32","slug":"south-carolina-house-panel-takes-up-senate-passed-medical-marijuana-legalization-bill-after-months-of-delay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2024\/04\/23\/south-carolina-house-panel-takes-up-senate-passed-medical-marijuana-legalization-bill-after-months-of-delay\/","title":{"rendered":"South Carolina House Panel Takes Up Senate-Passed Medical Marijuana Legalization Bill After Months Of Delay"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A South Carolina House committee has taken up a GOP-led medical marijuana legalization bill<\/a>\u2014the first action the legislation has seen in the chamber since being approved by the Senate months ago.<\/p>\n

Members heard from multiple medical experts and law enforcement officials, including a retired chief of the state sheriffs\u2019 association who gave impassioned testimony in favor of the reform while discussing how cannabis saved his son and could\u2019ve helped his late wife with symptoms of Parkinson\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n

The legislation from Sen. Tom Davis (R) has been billed as strictly conservative, but it\u2019s stalled in the House since February. Now the measure has received consideration from lawmakers in the House Medical Cannabis Ad Hoc Committee.<\/p>\n

With just three weeks left in the legislative session, lawmakers have little time to waste to get the legislation to the desk of Gov. Henry McMaster (R). Any amendments made in the House would mean that it\u2019d need to return to the Senate for concurrence,<\/p>\n

Davis also pointed out over the weekend that, at the same time that an Indian tribe in neighboring North Carolina is opening its first medical cannabis dispensary, his \u201ceven-tighter\u201d bill has laid idle in the \u201cfreedom loving House,\u201d despite recent polling that shows the reform enjoys overwhelming bipartisan support in his state<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The South Carolina Senate had passed an earlier version of the legislation in 2022 but it stalled in the opposite body over a procedural hiccup.<\/p>\n

Overall, the current bill would allow patients to access cannabis from licensed dispensaries if they receive a doctor\u2019s recommendation for the treatment of qualifying conditions, which include several specific ailments as well as terminal illnesses and chronic diseases where opioids are the standard of care.<\/p>\n

Sheriff Duane Lewis of Berkeley County, representing the South Carolina Sheriff\u2019s Association (SCSA), testified in opposition to the proposal, arguing that marijuana is a gateway drug and that the proposed reform \u201cwould only exacerbate existing challenges and jeopardize safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what made the testimony from Lewis\u2019s predecessor, retired Chief Jeffrey Moore, all the more compelling when he came out in strong support of the medical cannabis bill, describing how his son struggled with alcohol abuse after experiencing significant trauma during military service in Iraq, only to find recovery with the help of marijuana he obtained legally in Michigan.<\/p>\n

\u201cMarijuana saved his life. I\u2019m not going to talk about all the anecdotes of other people. I\u2019m not going to talk about statistics,\u201d he said. Cannabis \u201cgave him a relief from the nightmares\u2014the grief the constant tears gave him a chance to put his life back together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Prakash Nagarkatti, a distinguished professor of medicine at the University of South Carolina, pushed back on the current SCSA chief\u2019s perspective and defended the therapeutic potential of cannabis for dozens of health conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople who are healthy do not have a right to tell people who are sick and say that, \u2018No you cannot have this plant, which has the medicinal value, because if you start using this, we who are healthy will also start abusing it,’\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t think the society should be made in such such a way that we decline any type of medicine that provides relief for patients who have no other source of medicines available to treat that pain as well as debilitating conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stephen Cutler, dean of USC\u2019s School of Pharmacy, echoed Nagarkatti\u2019s points and argued that, just as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a CBD isolate as an epilepsy treatment option, he anticipates \u201cwe will see, in our lifetime, new drugs come from cannabis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mark Keel, chief of the S.C. Law Enforcement Division (SLED), also voiced opposition to the medical cannabis bill, stating that, \u201conce we go down that road, we\u2019re not gonna be able to claw it back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rep. Marvin Smith (R) told the chief that while he is \u201cnot in favor or in support of legalizing marijuana usage throughout the state,\u201d it is \u201cimpossible not to empathize with the stories that we hear from families who were in the oftentimes end-of-life situations, are dealing with significant chronic pain issues and seizure issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really, really difficult for me to just totally dismiss this bill as as an elected official\u2014to say that it\u2019s not an issue that we need to deal with. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s fair,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re here to serve all the populations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Teshieka Curtis-Pugh, executive director of the South Carolina Nurses Association, told the committee that \u201cthe nurses of South Carolina support this bill.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe that it\u2019s time for South Carolina to be added to the states that put compassionate care at the forefront of medical provisions of care and allow the use of medical cannabis for the people of our great state,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

When senators\u00a0began debating the medical marijuana legislation<\/a>\u00a0in February, the body adopted an amendment that clarifies the bill does not require landlords or people who control property to allow vaporization of cannabis products.<\/p>\n

As debate on the legislation continued, members\u00a0clashed over whether the current version of the legislation contains major differences<\/a>\u00a0from an earlier iteration that the body passed in 2022.<\/p>\n

Certain lawmakers have also raised concerns that medical cannabis legalization would lead to broader reform to allow adult-use marijuana, that it could put pharmacists with roles in dispensing cannabis in jeopardy and that federal law could preempt the state\u2019s program, among other worries.<\/p>\n

Here are the main provisions of the\u00a0bill<\/a>:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n