The South Carolina state Senate this week approved a bill to legalize medical marijuana in an initial vote on the measure. The legislation, known as the South Carolina Compassionate Care Act, was approved by a vote of 26-17 on Tuesday, more than a year after the bill was introduced by Republican Sen. Tom Davis. The bill needs one more affirmative vote for final passage in the Senate before heading to the state House of Representatives for consideration.
The South Carolina Senate passed a similar bill to legalize medical marijuana in 2022 but the measure failed to gain approval in the House due to a procedural issue. This legislative session’s version of the bill came up short in a vote to bring it to the Senate floor last year, but a vote last week gave it new life for the 2024 legislative session, cannabis news outlet Marijuana Moment reported on Tuesday.
The South Carolina Senate has given initial approval to a bill to legalize the use of medical … [+]
Davis, the sponsor of the legislation, has been working to legalize medical marijuana in South Carolina since 2014 when he introduced the state’s first bill to legalize the medicinal use of cannabis. During the Senate debate on the bill that began last week, Davis said that he has been working 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.”
Bill Specifies Qualifying Conditions To Use Medical Marijuana
If passed, the legislation would legalize the medicinal use of cannabis for patients with specified serious medical conditions who receive a doctor’s recommendation. Patients with jobs in public safety and commercial transportation or who operate commercial machinery would not be eligible to use medical cannabis.
The bill only permits patients with certain qualifying conditions to use medical marijuana, including cancer, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, ulcerative colitis, glaucoma, post-traumatic stress disorder, autism, Crohn’s disease, sickle cell anemia, cachexia or wasting syndrome, severe nausea, chronic medical conditions causing severe muscle spasms or pain, and terminal illness.
Before it can become law, the South Carolina Compassionate Care Act must be approved by the … [+]
“This is anything but rolling the dice. It is making the physician the gatekeeper,” Davis said during Senate debate on the measure last week, according to a report from WLTX television news. “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.”
Bill Authorizes Medical Marijuana Dispensaries
Medical cannabis would be available from dispensaries licensed by the Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) and the Board of Pharmacy. Smoking marijuana and home cultivation of cannabis would remain illegal under the bill.
“I think when this bill passes—and I hope it does pass—it’s going to be the template for any state that truly simply wants to empower doctors and empower patients and doesn’t want to go down the slippery slope” to legalizing recreational marijuana, Davis said on the Senate floor. “I think it can actually be used by several states that maybe regret their decision to allow recreational use, or they may be looking to tighten up their medical laws so that it becomes something more stringent.”
The legislation needs to be passed by the Senate one more time in a vote that is expected soon, according to Marijuana Moment. The bill would then head to the South Carolina House of Representatives for consideration. If the bill is passed by the legislature and signed into law by Republican Gov. Henry McMaster, South Carolina will join the 38 other states that have legalized medical marijuana.