- BIG STORY, analysis: Is medical marijuana now legal in S.C.?
- ROUNDUP: 9 S.C. House members call for S.C. State defunding
- LOWCOUNTRY, Ariail: Once again
- BRACK: About a former governor and someone who wants to be
- MYSTERY PHOTO: Placid picture
- FEEDBACK: On planning courage and riddance
Is medical marijuana now legal in S.C.?
News analysis by Jack O’Toole | What GOP Sen. Tom Davis said on the Senate floor Wednesday sounded almost surreal in the Republican-supermajority chamber.
“In South Carolina, right now, as we stand, we have just become the 41st state that has a legally authorized medical marijuana program.”
What Beaufort’s Davis, the legislature’s foremost medical marijuana proponent, said was probably news to most South Carolinians.
After all, no new medical marijuana legislation has passed the S.C. House and Senate. There has been no signing ceremony at the governor’s mansion. Supporters and opponents weren’t holding press conferences to celebrate or decry the move.
But as Davis explained to his colleagues, none of that was apparently necessary. He said the state already has a law mandating the creation of a medical marijuana program in the state Department of Public Health (DPH) that was passed by the legislature and signed into law in 1980.
On its face, the plain language of the act appears to support Davis’s contention.
“There is established in the Department of Health and Environmental Control [the DPH precursor agency] a controlled substances therapeutic research program,” the law says. “The program shall distribute to cancer chemotherapy and radiology patients and to glaucoma patients who are certified pursuant to this act marijuana under the terms and conditions of this act for the purpose of alleviating the patient’s discomfort, nausea and other painful side effects of their disease or chemotherapy treatments.”
And when Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche issued an April 23 order “immediately” reclassifying medical marijuana from a Schedule I drug to a Schedule III substance — essentially ending the federal prohibition by formally declaring medical marijuana a drug with legitimate medical uses — he triggered the 46-year-old S.C. law, Davis said.
“Medical marijuana is now legal in South Carolina,” Davis continued. “And Dr. [Edward] Simmer, as the DPH director, is in charge — he ‘shall’ provide that marijuana to those patients [under the law].”
State agencies quiet about impact
State agencies were mostly mum in response to Davis’s argument.
In an April 30 statement, DPH acknowledged the federal action, but didn’t comment directly on its Palmetto State implications.
“We are assessing the impacts to DPH and the state of South Carolina,” spokesperson Casey White said.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the State Law Enforcement Division (SLED), whose chief, Mark Keel, has been a leading opponent of medical marijuana, declined comment.
“SLED does not have anything to provide on this matter at this time,” the agency said in an unsigned statement.
Gov. Henry McMaster’s office also did not reply to a request for comment, but confirmed through a spokesperson that the federal rescheduling would trigger a state reclassification in an April 25 news report.
Still, as Davis told Statehouse Report Thursday, he’s not happy about the apparent win.
In fact, he sees the current situation — an apparently binding mandate on DPH, with none of the guardrails and regulations that he’s tried to put in place through a carefully crafted medical marijuana law over the past 12 years — as a failure by state leaders to recognize that an eventual federal rescheduling was inevitable.
“The legislature, quite frankly, has been derelict in its duty,” Davis said.
‘The most conservative medical marijuana bill in the country’
S.C. has seen at least three serious attempts to legislate on medical marijuana since the 1980 bill, and Davis has been at the center of each effort.
In 2014, he sponsored and passed Julian’s Law, which allows patients with severe, treatment-resistant epilepsy to possess cannabinoid oil containing up to 0.9% THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.
That legislation, he said, grew out of a conversation he had with a constituent who pointed him to the medical research supporting medical marijuana in epilepsy treatment. And it was in the course of working on that bill that Davis said he discovered the larger body of scientific studies on marijuana’s medical uses for other serious medical problems — cancer, Parkinson’s, cerebral palsy, chronic pain and more.
“That’s when I realized we needed to put some safeguards in place to allow doctors to provide their patients with this product,” Davis said.
What followed was a comprehensive bill that sought to strictly regulate medical marijuana, from sourcing to prescribing to dispensing — legislation that Davis has called “the most conservative medical marijuana bill in the country.” Since then, he’s shepherded the legislation through the Senate twice, in 2022 and 2024, only to see it die without a vote in the House.
And now, without comprehensive legislation, Davis fears that lawmakers’ inaction has left the state with an irresponsible legal mandate to provide patients with an unregulated drug.
“My position has always been that this is a potentially dangerous substance,” Davis said. “We need to regulate it. We need to have physicians authorizing it. We need to have pharmacists dispensing it with proper labeling. And all that’s missing now.”
The consequences of inaction
With state agencies still mostly silent on the 1980 law and only six days left in the 2026 legislative session, Davis said the most likely short-term outcome is a finding by DPH that, without direct funding from the legislature, it can’t create the legally required program. But that’s unlikely to settle the issue until lawmakers return next January, he noted.
“I’m not encouraging this, but I expect there will be some legal actions filed by individuals who want to access marijuana for medicinal purposes,” Davis said. “And they’re going to compel, or attempt to compel, DPH to discharge the duty it has been statutorily directed to do.”
Asked about his own next steps, Davis said he plans to reintroduce his regulatory bill next session when he believes the legal situation will force the legislature to act.
But that’s not the solution to the challenges facing S.C., he said, likening the medical marijuana bill to two other bills he’s sponsored, and expects to soon see die, this session — comprehensive data-center regulation and new authority for local governments to pair new development with the roads and infrastructure needed to support it.
“A lot of times as legislators, we tend to think if something’s complicated or uncomfortable, we can just do nothing and avoid the problem,” Davis said. “But that’s just not the case.”
He added, “Doing nothing is a choice. And doing nothing has consequences.”
- Jack O’Toole is Statehouse bureau chief for Statehouse Report and the Charleston City Paper.
- Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com
S.C. House members call for S.C. State defunding
By Jack O’Toole, Statehouse bureau | Nine Republican S.C. House members are calling on House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bruce Bannister to eliminate funding for S.C. State University after the school rescinded Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette’s invitation to speak at its May 8 graduation following student complaints.
“If the lieutenant governor of South Carolina is unwelcome due to different political ideologies and an inability to keep her safe, it is time to defund and reevaluate,” the members wrote in an April 30 letter.
The controversy began earlier in the week when some students at the university, negatively described later by Evette as a “woke mob,” said they were upset by stands she has taken in her 2026 gubernatorial campaign, such as opposition to diversity, equality and inclusion.
A student-led petition called for the university to disinvite Evette and select a different speaker. On Tuesday, students marched around campus, chanting, “Pamela Evette has got to go.” As a historical sidenote, student protest is ingrained in S.C. State’s tradition. In February 1968 during a protest near a bowling alley in Orangeburg, law enforcement officials shot and killed three students. Twenty-eight others were injured in what came to be known as the Orangeburg Massacre.
Earlier this week, student complaints, as heard in a video Evette reposted on X, included soundbites that she’s a “Trump conservative,” “doesn’t support DEI” and is “anti-abortion.”
In response, university officials disinvited Evette on April 29.
“Commencement should remain a moment of celebration focused on our graduates and their achievements, and we are committed to ensuring an environment that reflects that purpose,” University President Alexander Conyers said in a statement.
“Conservative voices will never be bullied or silenced anywhere in South Carolina,” Evette posted on X an hour before the university announced she would no longer be the speaker. “See you at commencement.”
After her disinvitation, Evette doubled down on the same conservative talking points that concerned students, saying this is “why we cannot give up the fight to end indoctrination and DEI” and blaming college professors for “feigned outrage.”
According to news reports, the nine GOP members calling for defunding were S.C. Reps. Gil Gatch, Thomas Beach, Jackie Terribile, Sarita Edgerton, Josiah Magnuson, John McCravy, Melissa Oremus and Cally Forrest Jr.
In other recent news
STATEHOUSE: S.C. House amends DUI bill with unanimous vote. Looking to toughen South Carolina’s laws for driving under the influence, the S.C. House unanimously joined the Senate on Thursday by passing S. 52, a bill sponsored by Beaufort Republican Sen. Tom Davis.
- Effort to study hate crime law fails in S.C. Senate
- S.C. Senate approves requiring shrimp advertised as local to come from S.C. shores
- S.C. legislation could change how car insurance covers repairs when a rock cracks a driver’s windshield
- House passes roads bill without local buy-back program
- Cash hijacks bill on police animals to debate abortion
- S.C. legislators would need permission to get paid with state dollars
S.C. to send voter information to U.S. Department of Justice. South Carolina will share voter information with the U.S. Department of Justice under an agreement the State Election Commission approved Tuesday.
2026: After fortifying mansion, Reddy now wants to be governor. A review of the political battles of Rom Reddy, who pushed back against the state’s beachfront management law to protect his mansion. Now he is running to be South Carolina’s governor.
- Wilson says he’ll cut state spending
- Third bite at the apple? Sanford now not running for Congress again
- S.C. candidates for attorney general let barbs fly in bitter debate
Mentally ill face hellish conditions, uncertain justice in S.C. jails. “If mentally ill people — mentally ill American citizens — were in a foreign country being treated the way a lot of the mentally ill inmates are in this country, the public would demand that the government go and rescue them,” one former jail official says in this deep-dive investigation.
Some fear politics could influence S.C. consumer advocate. The S.C. Office of Consumer Affairs was targeted in a yearslong campaign led by the state’s car dealerships after a public pricing transparency battle between the dealer’s lobby and the agency. The dealer’s lobby suggests eliminating the citizen-led board that controls it and turning the agency head into an at-will appointee of the governor.
Big math error: S.C. sales tax breaks for data centers came to $828K, not 828M. Sales tax exemptions that the state provides for the rows of computers and servers purchased and housed in high-tech data centers, as well as the electricity used to power them, amounted to $828,000 for the fiscal year that ended last June, according to corrected information from the state’s tax agency.
Farms, gardens drying up amid drought. Sparse vegetables and dusty pastures are common sights these days at several Lowcountry farms as an ongoing drought has farmers and agriculture officials worried for the season.
State Department of Health will fund new medical resource for expecting rural mothers. The South Carolina Department of Public Health says it’s awarded nearly $8 million to Clemson Rural Health to pay for a mobile maternity clinic for expectant mothers in rural parts of the state.
Once again
Award-winning cartoonist Robert Ariail has a special knack for poking a little fun in just the right way. This week, he steps into the continuing Republican effort to make abortion more stringent each session.
- Love this week’s cartoon or hate it? Did he go too far, or not far enough? Send your thoughts to feedback@statehousereport.com.
About a former governor and someone who wants to be
Commentary by Andy Brack | Today’s commentary comes in two pieces – one about former Gov. Mark Sanford, a month-long candidate for Congress who dropped out Thursday, and current Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, who stepped in something ripe that’s related to a speech invitation.
First Sanford, who is featured on the cover of the new issue of the Charleston City Paper in a story describing his congressional bid. And here’s where the story twists: The newspaper had to create a second cover for its online edition after Sanford unexpectedly dropped his bid for the First Congressional District seat.
Last week, the newspaper interviewed Sanford for the cover story because his bid for a third stint in Congress was fascinating. He first ran for the U.S. House as a firebrand in 1994 and won three terms. Then after serving as governor from 2003 to 2011, he ran in a special election in 2013 and then won full terms in 2014 and 2016. On March 30 – the last day he could get in the race that already had nine Republican candidates – he rocked the political world by filing at the last minute. Why? Because he said he wanted to get people in Washington talking about the nation’s growing $39 trillion debt and to restore fiscal sanity to Washington.
So all of this led to a good story that the City Paper put on the cover. The newspaper sent the issue to its Seneca printer on Wednesday afternoon. Soon, the paper was printed, only to be delivered late Thursday. But in what was the journalism equivalent of an unforced tennis error, Sanford dropped out of the race on Thursday, making the cover story moot.
So the newspaper developed a new online version of the cover (same image with a big red X across his face), added an editor’s note to the story and offered a column explaining why there were two covers this week for the first time ever.
This whole mess caught the newspaper flatfooted. And frankly,, the staff kind of feels like it got a little Appalachian-trailed on this one, even if unintentionally. (IYKYK).
Please note: The newspaper isn’t mad at Sanford – just a little disappointed that it got put in this situation. If you can get a physical copy of the printed issue, it’s sure to become a collector’s issue. Let’s just hope it’s not ever on eBay.
For his part, Sanford apologized Thursday. “I am so sorry,” he texted. “My doubts had been growing and a conversation … broke the dam and it cascaded from there.”
Now to Evette, a gubernatorial candidate who was slated to give a May 8 commencement speech at S.C. State University until students started protesting this week. They didn’t like some of her political rhetoric about diversity, equality and inclusion. They asked the administration for another speaker.
Evette should have ignored them and should have said she looked forward to talking about non-political business issues. But in politics, grace sometimes isn’t in the forefront, especially when you’re behind in the polls like she is.
So she castigated students as a “woke mob,” which was like throwing gasoline on a political fire in Orangeburg where during a 1968 protest, three students were shot and 28 wounded in what is known as the Orangeburg Massacre. (Perhaps Evette, a native of Ohio, doesn’t know much about the event – but as lieutenant governor, she should.)
What seems to have happened here is that Evette tried to create a controversy using the Historically Black College and University to bait MAGA voters to support her for governor – a cynical strategy not that much different from the politics of fear spewed in 1968 by successful GOP presidential candidate Richard Nixon.
And we all know how that turned out.
Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report and the Charleston City Paper. Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
Placid picture
This is a tranquil, placid picture somewhere in South Carolina. Wouldn’t you like to visit? So tell us where it is. Send your best guess – plus hometown and name – to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
Last week’s photo, “White boxes,” was a different view of the Columbus Street Terminal in Charleston taken from the S.C. Irish Memorial park on Charlotte Street.
Charleston’s Lee Baldonado immediately knew what the pitgure was, but longtime sleuth Allan Peel of San Antonio, Texas, admitted it was a bit of a challenge “considering there are quite a few shipping ports and terminals in South Carolina.” George Graf of Palmyra, Va., also correctly identified the photo.
- SHARE: If you have a Mystery Photo to share, please send it to us – and make sure you tell us what it is!
On planning courage and riddance
To the editor:
Appreciate your accounting of South Carolina legislative planning failures. Having spent so many years listening … about the agenda, I can testify that the issue(s) were not a lack of foresight.
The competing priorities always come down to the reality of politics. South Carolina has accomplished many, many laudable goals and of course is a “move in” state as opposed to the long list of failures. I also appreciate your reference to Reconstruction, to say the least, as an explanation for lack of progress.
One point I would add is that the South Carolina community owned textile mills, before the advent of the Northeast absentee-owned mills, was a major contributor to regaining economic stability, not a deterrent.
– Donald Jonas, Lexington, S.C.
You show courage
To the editor,
I cannot express to you how much I appreciate your article regarding abortion and ED medications. You show great courage to express this view as a man and in a state where this view is labeled ” Anti-Christian.”
I am a retired nurse, widow of a pastor, and have always felt it has been much too easy and less costly for men to get their “pills” than for women to get and even afford basic birth control pills and devices. I am not even talking about abortion, but the first step in managing choices. I am pro-choice.
What a woman and, hopefully, a supportive partner, decide is best for them is not our business. Providing safe, accessible health care is. I have a problem with a pro-life stand that does not support the well-being and proper care of the children they demand must be born. We should be concerned about these lives and what is our duty to provide for all children.
We cannot have it both ways – birth all pregnancies but refuse to support these babies and mothers. That is Anti-Christian in my thinking and we shall be held accountable for our actions. God forgive us.
– Name withheld, Greenville, S.C.
Good riddance
To the editor:
How about instead of encouraging your daughters to leave South Carolina, you teach them personal responsibility and birth control methods?
Abortion is murder when there are plenty of birth control options available. Notice I didn’t say “other” birth control options? Abortion is not birth control. It’s murder. And good riddance if your daughters share your same liberal opinions.
– Renee Standera, West Columbia, S.C.
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Please send us your thoughts about politics and policy in South Carolina, but make sure to leave phone numbers and hometowns to help us verify them for publication. We publish non-defamatory comments, but unless you provide your contact information – name and hometown, plus a phone number used only by us for verification – we can’t publish your views.
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Statehouse Report, founded in 2001 as a weekly legislative forecast that informs readers about what is going to happen in South Carolina politics and policy, is provided by email to you at no charge every Friday.
- Editor and publisher: Andy Brack, 843.670.3996
- Statehouse bureau chief: Jack O’Toole
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