Remedy or gateway drug? Doctors, police differ on path forward for medical marijuana

Medical marijuana blurs lines across law enforcement and the medical community, where advocates and opponents don’t agree whether it is a gateway drug or necessary medical device.

With days left in the 2024 session, House members are hearing from doctors, law enforcement, researchers, pharmacists and others on the highly contested issue. Out of 17 speakers at a Ad Hoc committee meeting Tuesday, eight opposed the bill, nine supported it and one was relatively indifferent.

The Compassion Care Act passed the Senate 24-19 in February. The House killed a similar bill two years ago on a technicality. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, has been working on passing a medical marijuana bill for 10 years. It’s up to the House whether to send it to the governors desk.

The bill, described as one of the more conservative medical marijuana bills in the country, would limit who can use the drug, such as those suffering from terminal conditions, severe neurological disease or debilitating disease. The drug could not be smoked in flower form, and can only be taken through tincture, unflavored edible or vaporizer.

Psychosis to increased crime; cannabis’ major concerns

Multiple law enforcement leaders, including chiefs and sheriffs from Myrtle Beach, West Columbia, Greenville and Chapin testified Tuesday against the bill citing their experiences from their line of work.

They described marijuana as a gateway drug to others such as narcotics and opioids consistently, and cited its other dangerous qualities. 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.

Officers said passing the medical marijuana bill would create major problems for South Carolina residents already struggling with addiction, and open the possibility to more self-endangerment as well as endangerment of others, like the potential increase in people operating a vehicle while high.

“This is truly a dangerous proposition,” SLED Chief Mark Keel testified. “This bill is not about medicine, it is about legalizing recreational marijuana.”

Keel said states with similar laws laws have increased robberies and homelessness.

A physician, Dr. March Seabrook, said marijuana is not a medicine, but a plant. Seabrook specializes in gastroenterology and said he found it strange that the bill listed ulcerative colitis and other diseases having to do with the stomach, because in his years of research and practice, medical marijuana had come up only one time at a conference.

“This is simply not on our radar screen at all,” Seabrook said. “I don’t think this is in the best interest of South Carolina.”

Other concerns included advertising, targeting children, distribution, increased drug deals, youth intelligence and overall decline in intelligence using the drug, as well as the governing pharmacy board. Law enforcement brought up that medical marijuana would not be prescribed and given through a regular doctor and pharmacist, which makes it harder to regulate.

The bill requires that the application of the marijuana product must be prescribed by a licensed pharmacist and produced in a “state-licensed and regulated facility.”

Advocates, however, said the distribution would still be overseen by DHEC and the Pharmacists Association. Two pharmacists who supported the bill explained the logistics. The marijuana product must be prescribed by a licensed pharmacist and produced in a “state-licensed and regulated facility.”

Benefits of cannabis range from physical to mental

Supporters 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.

Researchers, some for the bill, some indifferent, described how much research has been done surrounding the drug. Dr. Prakash Nagarkatti, a researcher and professor at USC, discussed how Cannabinoids, compounds derived from Cannabis sativa plants, which can be described as what some people feel when they have “runner’s high” are produced endogenously in the brain and by immune cells. He said when the body is sick and isn’t able to make enough cannabinoids, and medical marijuana can be extremely helpful in making them up.

Multiple studies of people with diseases, including those who struggle with seizures, have shown that medical marijuana drastically improves their quality of life, and in many cases, decreases the number of seizures for people who are struggling.

Jeff Moore, former director of the S.C. Sheriffs Association, testified about his families situation surrounding medical marijuana. His son, who battled with addiction, joined the army where he developed PTSD.

“That marijuana saved his life. He was on the edge of death ... from drinking alcohol. It gave him a relief from the nightmares, the grief, the constant tears, it gave him a chance to put his life back together. Wouldn’t you want that for your son? Wouldn’t you?”

While some physicians said they did not believe the bill would be useful or helpful for their patients, others relayed the immense weight it would take off of many who struggle and find themselves using worse and more intense drugs that usually don’t even solve the problem. Nurses also spoke on the necessity for the bill, after seeing so many patients in hospice and severe levels of pain that could be aided by medical marijuana.

Nearly everyone who spoke in favor of the bill agreed that recreational use of the plant should not be allowed, and added they understood why South Carolina wouldn’t want it.

The House committee will meet again next Tuesday. If the law passes in the House and is signed by the governor, it will expire in five years.