Berkeley Co. lawmakers weigh in on SC marijuana legalization

BERKELEY COUNTY, S.C.–With the recent legalization of marijuana in Washington and Colorado, there is now a push now for other states to follow suit.  South Carolina is one of them.

For Wayne Borders, the midland’s acting executive director and chapter president for NORML, he is hoping the drug will eventually become legal to smoke.

“It’s a long time coming now because we have children with epilepsy and vets with PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) who marijuana could help alleviate their symptoms,” said Borders.

This month, Rep. Todd Rutherford (D-Columbia) filed a bill he’s calling the “Put Patients First Act.”  The bill would give people the right to buy marijuana in order to treat symptoms caused by debilitating medical conditions.

A few days ago, a bill that seeks to allow children with severe epilepsy to legally use oil derived from marijuana has advanced to the Senate floor where the medical affairs committee approved the use of cannabidiol, or CBD oil, but only as part of clinical trials testing federally approved drugs.

Believe it or not, South Carolina actually passed a medical marijuana law in 1980.  It allows the director of SCDHEC to distribute and obtain the drug in order to treat certain medical issues in patients.  The problem is there is no program currently based on the law, so it’s essentially faced a roadblock.  The wording of the 1980 law allows the director to obtain marijuana through means consistent with federal law.  The problem is that the feds consider pot as a controlled substance–making it a hard law to implement.

Senator Larry Grooms of Daniel Island says he’s open to new laws making the drug legal and easily available but only to an extent.

“If there was a demonstrated medical use, I would look into the body of evidence and consider the benefits,” said Grooms.

The longtime state lawmaker stated; however, that he could never support the legalization of recreational marijuana.

“I believe that marijuana is a drug that leads to another harder drug, but the great thing about our country is that there are fifty states, and with Colorado legalizing it, the other states can see how it turns out and learn from their experiences,” said Grooms.

Senator Paul Campbell of Goose Creek recently told The Berkeley Observer that he was basically against “the weed movement.”

“I would consider it for doctor prescribed medical purposes,” said Campbell.  “I don’t see any way I could pass

legislation like has been done in Colorado or Washington. It would put folks working in dangerous jobs such as police, folks handling things like molten metal, driving public transportation, truck drivers, etc. in tenuous circumstances as from my understanding weed influences behavior for several days.”

Under the current laws in South Carolina, if you are busted with the drug you could get 30 days in jail and a $200 fine for a first offense of one ounce or less of marijuana.  A subsequent offense could result in one year in jail along with $1,000 fine. The punishments for selling or cultivating marijuana range from five to 25 years incarcerated and fines from $5,000 to $200,000.

It’s a law, Berkeley Co. Sheriff Wayne Dewitt hopes to continue enforcing.  Dewitt says he opposes making the drug readily available to the public.

“I have a son who began with marijuana and ended up doing some hard drugs –so people don’t have to tell me

the harm that drugs do to a family. I know firsthand,” said Dewitt.  “I just think when you legalize it, it’s going to get the young people started on that then lord knows where it’s going to end up. I could never favor legalizing marijuana. If a law is passed that legalizes marijuana for medical purposes, for health issues –we’ll enforce the law as it’s written.”

So far, there is a current petition on change.org to legalize doctor prescribed medical marijuana in South Carolina.  Nearly 4,000 people have signed it.

There is also a Facebook page advocating for the legalization of marijuana in South Carolina.