A panel of state House legislators failed to make a decision this week on a Senate-passed bill that would legalize medical marijuana in South Carolina, probably killing the bill.
“It’s unfortunate,” state Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, told Statehouse ReportTuesday afternoon. “We passed this in early February and it just sat over there gathering dust. To set hearings with just three weeks left to go in the session creates a procedural impediment that was intentional, quite frankly.”
Davis, who has been pushing the measure for nine years, has said the proposed medical marijuana measure would be the most restrictive in the country. It calls for decriminalizing the drug to relieve pain and suffering for people with certain conditions, such as cancer, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy and post-traumatic stress disorder. It would allow people to eat, vape or apply cannabis as a lotion, but not smoke it as a joint.
“I don’t want to put thoughts in anybody else’s head, but you have to wonder if they [House members] were ever serious about taking it up and debating it honestly,” Davis said.
In related news, the U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday recommended that marijuana be rescheduled as a Schedule III controlled substance, a classification shared by prescription drugs such as ketamine, testosterone and Tylenol with codeine.
Marijuana is currently classified as a Schedule I drug, which is the same level as addictive substances like heroin which the Drug Enforcement Administration describes as having no currently accepted medical use.
Though the federal recommendation doesn’t decriminalize marijuana, it’s a significant shift from the government that acknowledges the medical benefits of the long-criminalized drug and carries broad implications for cannabis-related research and the industry at large.
In other recent headlines:
Clyburn to receive Presidential Medal of Freedom. News broke Friday morning that South Carolina’s own Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn was to be one of 19 people awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom today by President Joe Biden. Congratulations, congressman.
S.C. Senate approves ban on gender-affirming care transgender minors. The S.C. Senate on Thursday approved a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors after supporters defeated efforts to only ban treatments that would be considered irreversible.
S.C. Senate passes anti-squatting measures, but it’s unlikely to become law this year. A visceral fear of some property owners that an unwanted guest could move into their vacant home, refuse to leave and then claim ownership has been a trending story on social media, prompting swift legislative action.
S.C. gas pipeline operator seeks rate hike, potentially inflating power bills. South Carolina’s biggest pipeline player, Carolina Gas Transmission, wants an 85% increase in the price it charges utilities to supply natural gas, a move that could cost consumers.
Bill headed to McMaster to remove sales tax from period products. The state Senate unanimously approved a bill Tuesday to make menstrual or period products tax-exempt in South Carolina, an exemption already in place in more than 30 other states. The deal that finally brought the bill to the Senate floor came after Colleton County Democratic Sen. Margie Bright Matthews exercised senatorial privilege to place a hold on legislation exempting golf club memberships from taxation.
S.C. lawmakers demand investigation into claims non-citizens received voter forms. S.C. Rep. Adam Morgan, R-Greenville, is calling for a hearing with South Carolina’s Medicaid director following allegations that the agency sent voter registration materials to a non-U.S. citizen. The state election commission, however, said there’s no substantial evidence that people fraudulently registered to vote.
S.C. Senate approves hog hunting bill. The state Senate voted last week to approve Edgefield Republican Rep. Bill Hixon’s bill allowing the hunting of feral hogs via helicopter on properties larger than 500 acres.
“Constitutional carry” now legal, but hundreds still face charges. More than a thousand people around South Carolina are facing charges for gun crimes that are no longer illegal since Gov. Henry McMaster signed the permitless carry bill into law on March 7.
We Can Do Better, South Carolina!