SC GOP rebuffs Cunningham’s marijuana proposal as Senate slated to debate medical use
South Carolina Democratic hopeful Joe Cunningham said Monday that if elected governor in 2022, he will use the bully pulpit to push for legalizing recreational and medicinal marijuana.
Cunningham called the proposal a “game changer for the people of South Carolina” who have debilitating medical problems, saying it would allow law enforcement to focus attention on more serious crimes and create a new revenue source for the state.
“The people are no longer divided on this issue. It’s the politicians that haven’t come around,” Cunningham said.
Cunningham said his proposal calls for expunging the records of anyone convicted of a low-level marijuana-related offense.
“Expunging these records will allow countless South Carolinians to have more productive and successful life for them and their families,” he told the Associated Press. “Regulating and taxing marijuana would also generate tens of millions of dollars in new tax revenue, allowing our state to finally provide critical funding to fix our schools, fix our roads, expand Medicaid, give our hard working teachers the pay raise that they deserve, or even substantially cut taxes on South Carolina families.”
Stalled for years, the state Senate is slated to debate legislation next year that would legalize buying and using medical marijuana for South Carolinians with serious and debilitating medical problems, known as the “Compassionate Care Act.” The proposal is sponsored by state Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, and would allow for the licensed cultivation and sale of medical cannabis, adjoining the state to to more than 30 others. A companion bill sits in the House, filed by state Rep. Bill Herbkersman, R-Beaufort.
Cunningham’s primary challenger state Sen. Mia McLeod, a co-sponsor of Davis’ bill, called herself a “fierce advocate” of legalization.
“For once, South Carolina needs to be proactive and ahead of the curve,” said McLeod, D-Richland.
In March, Davis called his bill the “most conservative medical cannabis bill in the country.”
“I’ve spent six years years in good faith listening to the objections and concerns and recommendations composed by every industry in this sector. And I have always attempted to draft a bill to accommodate those concerns,” Davis said.
State Law Enforcement Division Chief Mark Keel, one of the bill’s main critics who holds significant lobbying power with members of the General Assembly and the governor, has opposed the bill from the start.
“This bill is not about medicine. It’s about legalizing marijuana in South Carolina,” Keel wrote in an April op-ed in The State.
Republican Gov. Henry McMaster has so far not endorsed the legislation but said earlier this year he was keeping an “open mind.”
South Carolina’s Republican Party chairman, however, is not on board.
In a statement directed at Cunningham, state GOP Chairman Drew McKissick said Cunningham is playing with fire.
“We stand with law enforcement that weed should not be legalized,” McKissick said in a statement, raising concerns that legalizing marijuana would raise crime and health problems. “And as far as medical use goes, we agree with law enforcement and doctors that real medicine is something that should be approved and regulated by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration), prescribed by a legitimate doctor, and distributed by a licensed pharmacist.”
To that, Davis tweeted in response the party’s medical cannabis statement is “an intellectually lazy position.”
This story was originally published July 12, 2021 at 5:21 PM with the headline "SC GOP rebuffs Cunningham’s marijuana proposal as Senate slated to debate medical use."
