South Carolina Legislature’s Medicinal Cannabis Bill Likely Dead

An attempt to salvage a law legalizing medical cannabis in South Carolina fell through the state legislature on Wednesday, clouding its prospects this year.

The Columbia, South Carolina state newspaper reports that “House legislators on Wednesday voted 59 to 55 against an appeal proposed by House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford, D-Richland, to keep the law alive ‘ which followed a request from a Republican member of The State House that ‘declare the proposal unconstitutional as creating a new tax, arguing that revenue-raising legislation can only come from the lower house’.

As the newspaper noted, the move was “probable [ends] no hope of going through this year.”

This is a disappointing development after the bill was approved by the state Senate in February. Members of this chamber considered medicinal cannabis to be a top priority at the start of the legislature earlier this year.

The bill’s sponsor, GOP State Senator Tom Davis, has been pushing a medical cannabis bill since 2015.

“If you bang on the door long enough. When you make your case. When the public asks for something, the state Senate owes a debate,” Davis told The Post and Courier in January. “The people of South Carolina deserve to know where their elected officials stand on this issue.”

Davis’ efforts to legalize medical cannabis in South Carolina have seen incremental progress.

In 2018, per The Post and Courier, the Senate Medical Affairs Committee gave Davis’ bill a say, but “opposition prevented any debate on the floor from ever happening.” The newspaper said that the “2021 session ended last May with GOP leadership promising Davis he would get a vote this year.”

In February, the bill known as the SC Compassionate Care Act broke through and passed the state Senate by a vote of 28 to 15.

“Even those who were against the law, I mean, they could have just been against it. They could have railed against it, they could have tried to delay things. They didn’t. They voiced their concerns, but what they then did was dig in and try to better the bill. So what you’ve seen in the last three weeks is what’s supposed to happen in a representative democracy,” Davis said at the time, as quoted by local TV station WCSC.

But the dream seemed to die at the South Carolina home on Wednesday. According to The State, Davis “and other Senate leaders stood speechless in the House of Representatives on Wednesday as they watched a last-ditch effort to save the law fail,” with the Republican Senate leader saying the procedural move had “significant consequences.” might have about the relationship between the House of Representatives and the Senate.”

“We suffered a procedural setback today in the House of Representatives,” Davis said, as quoted by The State. “I can’t cry about it. I can’t pout about it. I can’t come back and lash out and try to hurt other people’s bills. That’s not productive. I just need to find a way to get this thing up or down the house and I’ll work on that.”

Even advocates like Davis could run out of moves. The state reported it was not clear “whether Speakers in the House would be willing to include the issue in the Sine Die Resolution, an agreement between the chambers outlining what they may debate after the session is over.”

“I need to find out if there is another vehicle. We’ve got four days left in session, lots of bills on the calendar, some involving pharmacies and medical matters and things like that,” Davis said, as quoted by The State. “And so I think there’s an opportunity, and I’m going to investigate what they are.”