Federal government to reclassify marijuana. What does that mean for SC’s medical use bill?

The same day the South Carolina House ad-hoc committee on medical marijuana met for a second time, the Associated Press reported that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration will move to reclassify the drug from Schedule I to Schedule III.

Lawmakers in the House couldn’t say how the federal shift would impact the Palmetto State’s decision on access for medical marijuana with no other meetings on the bill are scheduled. Here’s what we do know.

The House ad hoc committee has been hearing testimony the last two weeks on the legalization of medical marijuana. Dubbed as the Compassionate Care Act, the bill passed 24-19 in the Senate in February.

After the committee meeting Tuesday, Rep. Sylleste Davis, R-Berkely, said the news about the classification of the drug may or may not impact the bill. She said the committee members got some good input from the testimony during the day and previously.

“Were going to have to look into exactly what went on today, and exactly what that means for this process,” Davis said. “For the bill itself, it may or may not impact the bill. We really don’t know yet. We really need to look at it. I don’t think it’s as easy as the headline leads you to believe.”

She added that she isn’t sure of the outcome of a House vote, if it moves to the House floor, and there wasn’t a lot of time left.

“I really think that what happened today may play into that,” Davis said. “You may have people that were against it and now they’re for it.”

No further meeting have been scheduled on the bill after the meeting Tuesday, Davis said. She said House members did owe their attention to the bill. She knew the Senate had spent a lot of time on it, she said. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, has been pushing for the passage of a medical marijuana bill for more than 10 years.

The likelihood of the South Carolina bill moving to the House floor is low. With a few days of the 2024 session left, the bill was brought up in the House late. Some people around the state house said the bill was sent to the ad-hoc committee to die off.

Schedule I drugs, which include heroin, LSD and methamphetamine, are defined as ones with potential for high abuse and no medical use. Marijuana has been included in this group since 1971.

The decision to reclassify would not legalize it for recreational use. The next step is the White House Office of Management and Budget clearance. NBC News reported that U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland could submit the proposal to OMB as early as Tuesday afternoon.

Twenty seven people testified Tuesday, ranging from community advocates, veterans, researchers, mothers of children abusing the drug, and mothers of children with seizures and medical emergencies who needed the drug.

The previous week, April 23, testimony from law enforcement and medical professionals. Opponents, which included multiple law enforcement officers described marijuana as a gateway drug. Law enforcement and some physicians spoke about marijuana’s psychoactive qualities and how this can affect someone. Decreased production, illness and even severe mental illness like schizophrenia were also cited.

But advocates urged lawmakers to pass the bill, citing personal stories, research and evidence that cannabis is extremely useful with decreasing inflammation for patients, decreasing pain levels, aiding PTSD and other mental illnesses and more.

In the second ad-hoc committee Tuesday, some speakers explained the potential reclassification switch of marijuana. Others spoke on their support for the classification switch, how it made sense and confirmed the drugs immense benefits for people in need of pain relief.

When the bill passed the Senate, Sen. Tom Davis told the State he was concerned about the number of opponents in the House.

“It’s going to take leadership over there saying to the members ‘it’s been ten years, we deserve a vote on this,’ and obviously that’s up to the speaker whether to do that. I hope that he does. I think it deserves an up or down vote in the House, but that’s not my territory that’s his,” Davis said in February.

Davis said he was specifically concerned about Rep. John McCravy, R-Greenwood, and others putting up multiple amendments to stop the movement of the bill on the House floor.

McCravy told The State in February he was unsure if the House would pass the bill, but he did know a number of representatives including himself who were opposed to it.

“If this bill we’re talking about was simply allowing somebody that’s dying of cancer to use marijuana or something like that, I don’t think anybody would oppose that,” McCravy told The State in February. “But a lot of people like me see this bill as the first step towards recreational marijuana. And there are a lot of things in the bill that indicate that.”

Two years ago, the House killed a similar bill on a technicality. After the last day of the 2024 session on May 9, if the bill has not passed on the House floor, it have to start over in the Senate.