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Updated: April 25, 2026 @ 10:10 am
Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, is the Statehouse’s leading advocate for legalizing medical marijuana in South Carolina.
South Carolina has long had a lukewarm posture toward the legalization of marijuana. Recreational use remains outlawed. In recent years, however, efforts to start programs for medicinal use have been largely unsuccessful amid Statehouse efforts to prohibit other THC-infused products, like drinks and gummies.
Nick Reynolds covers politics for the Post and Courier. A native of Central New York, he spent three-and-a-half years covering politics in Wyoming before joining the paper in late 2021. His work has appeared in outlets like Newsweek, Poynter, the Associated Press, and the Washington Post. He lives in Columbia.
Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, is the Statehouse’s leading advocate for legalizing medical marijuana in South Carolina.
COLUMBIA — A decision by the Trump administration to reclassify medical marijuana to a Schedule III drug could trigger an obscure South Carolina law requiring state health officials to obtain the drug through whatever legal means necessary to stand up a controlled substances therapeutic research program.
South Carolina has long had a lukewarm posture toward the legalization of marijuana. Recreational use remains outlawed. In recent years, however, efforts to start up programs for medicinal use have been largely unsuccessful amid Statehouse efforts to prohibit other THC-infused products, like drinks and gummies.
What many don’t realize, however, is that South Carolina already has a medical marijuana law. And the recent change in federal law might have just triggered it.
On April 23, the U.S Department of Justice and the Drug Enforcement Administration ordered state-authorized medical cannabis products be reclassified under federal law from Schedule I — a classification reserved for substances considered by the government to have high potential for abuse — to the less stringent Schedule III, which advocates say will eliminate legal ambiguities around state-level medical marijuana programs.
While the state currently lacks a formal program, the decision appeared to have triggered language under the South Carolina Controlled Substances Therapeutic Research Act of 1980, which authorizes the state’s health agencies to move cannabis in the list of controlled substances overseen by the agency under its controlled substances therapeutic research program.
It also mandates the director of the Department of Public Health to “obtain marijuana through whatever means he deems most appropriate consistent with federal law” for the purpose of medical research, with qualified patients to include cancer chemotherapy and radiology patients and glaucoma patients.
“DPH is aware of the proposed rescheduling of medical marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act,” the agency said in a statement. “We are assessing the impacts to DPH and the state of South Carolina.”
Gov. Henry McMaster’s office, which did not offer comment on the policy, confirmed state law would require South Carolina to make the change: according to law, if a substance is “added, deleted, or rescheduled as a controlled substance pursuant to federal law or regulation,” the department would be required to reschedule the substance under its own guidelines.
“§ 44-53-160(c) will require the State to mirror the new federal order,” Michelle LeClaire, McMaster’s spokesperson, wrote in an email April 24.
South Carolina has long had a lukewarm posture toward the legalization of marijuana. Recreational use remains outlawed. In recent years, however, efforts to start programs for medicinal use have been largely unsuccessful amid Statehouse efforts to prohibit other THC-infused products, like drinks and gummies.
The legislature might have to act, as well. But it’s still up in the air — nobody at this point is sure what the changes will actually look like on the ground in South Carolina.
“Today’s order by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche rescheduling state-licensed medical marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III triggers a chain of legal consequences in South Carolina that the General Assembly can no longer ignore,” state Sen. Tom Davis, a Beaufort Republican who has long-championed Statehouse efforts to stand up a medical marijuana program, said in a statement.
The 1980 law, Davis notes, provides no workable framework for how the department is actually supposed to do that, with few guardrails or guidance in the statute about what the program would prospectively look like. While it includes a Patient Qualification Review Advisory Board, it also grants the agency broad authority to expand the scope of the program to include other disease groups for participation “after pertinent medical data have been presented by a practitioner” to move forward with the changes.
Davis said those gaps were precisely why the General Assembly must act immediately to fill the void. And his medical marijuana bill — which has already passed the Senate two separate times — was the way to do so.
“The South Carolina Compassionate Care Act, which passed the Senate on multiple occasions, provides exactly the model we need: physician authorization on the front end, licensed cultivation and processing in the middle, and pharmacist dispensing on the back end — a patient-centered framework that protects patients, ensures product safety, and provides the regulatory clarity that both the public and the healthcare community deserve,” he said.
It’s a matter of debate how quickly lawmakers could move if they wanted to pass something.
The House of Representatives has long opposed Davis’ bill, killing it on a technicality four years ago on the final day of session. This session, House members have shown significant opposition to efforts to regulate cannabis products already on the market, with many favoring bans. Unlike past legislative sessions, Davis did not file a medical marijuana bill this session.
There remains just nine effective days left in session before the legislature returns home for the year.
Contact Nick Reynolds at 803-919-0578. Follow him on X at @IAmNickReynolds.
Nick Reynolds covers politics for the Post and Courier. A native of Central New York, he spent three-and-a-half years covering politics in Wyoming before joining the paper in late 2021. His work has appeared in outlets like Newsweek, Poynter, the Associated Press, and the Washington Post. He lives in Columbia.
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