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Cannabis 101: Understanding Compassionate Care

September 5, 2023 Published by

When it comes to the medical marijuana era—including understanding compassionate care programs—it pays to know a bit of history. 

Far from being a mere historical footnote in the long march towards legalization, the advent of state-sanctioned medical cannabis markets represented a game-changing victory on multiple fronts. From a policy perspective, the success of California’s Prop 215 in 1996 set in motion a domino effect that inspired numerous other states to follow suit by subsequently enacting medical marijuana laws of their own. 

What these laws accomplished was nothing short of radical: They allowed those suffering from a variety of medical ailments to purchase, consume and benefit from cannabis without fear of legal repercussion. But it didn’t go off quite so cleanly. Many licensed operations endured frequent, aggressive raids from federal authorities. Despite such challenges, some craft cannabis cultivators in California’s Emerald Triangle still pine for the medical-only days.

It makes sense. As a far looser market, requirements for testing, taxes, packaging and licensing all still existed but were notably less stringent than they’d ultimately become following California’s move to legalize recreational cannabis sales in 2018.

Another reason for these laments stems from the highly lucrative, rapidly growing cannabis industry, with its focus clearly shifting from medicine to money. Case in point: It took a monumental effort from advocates to fix a loophole in Prop 64 (California’s adult-use bill) that essentially killed the state’s landmark compassionate care program. To understand what happened, one needs to look at how these programs work and who they were originally designed to help.

Free Weed

The underlying concept behind compassionate care programs is that those in need should always have access to safe, quality medicine—regardless of whether they can afford it. At the onset, this group was largely composed of those living with HIV/AIDS, and cannabis had been deemed a potentially effective treatment for related symptoms, such as nausea, loss of appetite, pain relief and depression. With some hope in sight, 

brave individuals, including Prop 215 co-author Dennis Peron and the legendary “Brownie” Mary Rathbun, risked prison time to ensure patients hospitalized in San Francisco-area hospital AIDS wards could access cannabis.

When Prop 215 became law in 1996, it established the basic tenets for how cannabis compassionate care programs should operate. It’s a blueprint that basically continues to this day: Cultivators donate flower to licensed dispensaries, which in turn offer it to qualified patients at discounted rates, or for no charge at all. One of the reasons these programs worked was because, as a charitable enterprise, donations of cannabis weren’t subject to tax fees. Unfortunately, as mentioned above, this became a big problem after California enacted Prop 64 in 2016.

The issue became that in addition to requiring licensed growers to pay high taxes on cannabis cultivated for sale, Prop 64 failed to exempt flower grown for compassionate care from taxation. Normally happy to donate, cultivators understandably balked at being asked to pay for giving away free product. Thankfully, the issue was resolved in 2020 when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the Dennis Peron and Brownie Mary Act, once again making it possible for operators to distribute medical cannabis without the brutal taxes.

But as more and more states opt to evolve their industries from medical-only to a hybrid of adult-use and medical sales, are all patients being given the care and attention they deserve?

Making Room for Medicine

Barring federal policy reform and the establishment of a new nationwide set of standards, to gain the most accurate picture, one must approach this issue on a state-by-state level. As things stand today, there are now medical-only states, states with laws supporting both medical and recreational markets, and states where all products with more than a trace of THC continue to be fully prohibited.

Fortunately, a combination of thoughtful policymakers, seasoned advocates and generous cannabis companies are working to ensure patients continue to be an overall priority in the industry. In Oregon, for example, many dispensaries are dual-licensed—a quirk of the state’s legislation, but also a testament to the stores’ own values and desire to take care of their medical customers. 

(To clarify, being a medical patient doesn’t automatically make someone a compassionate care patient, though there’s certainly overlap between these groups.)

How compassionate care programs will figure into federal legalization policy when such a day eventually arrives will be a matter of which bill gets the favor of Congress. If those in charge do attempt to forget the rights of individuals needing access to free or discounted cannabis, one can expect cannabis advocates to fight for patient rights, as they have since the days of Prop 215. 

The post Cannabis 101: Understanding Compassionate Care appeared first on Cannabis Now.

New York Town Owes Nearly $200,000 After Firing Medical Cannabis Patient

July 10, 2023 Published by

The city of Amsterdam, New York owes nearly $200,000 after firing a medical marijuana patient for failing a drug screening for cannabis, a jury decided in a legal action filed by the dismissed city worker. The jury found that the city had discriminated against Thomas Apholz, a wastewater treatment plant worker who was suspended in February 2020 and later fired after testing positive for marijuana.

“They couldn’t fire him fast enough,” Kevin A. Luibrand, Apholz’s attorney told the Times-Union. “They gave him a termination letter on a Monday that fired him the prior Sunday so he couldn’t present his prescription card.”

New York legalized the medical use of marijuana in 2014 with the passage of the Compassionate Care Act, which went into effect in 2016. State law also grants registered medical marijuana patients disability status, which affords protection from employment discrimination for using cannabis.

Patient Fired After Failed Drug Screening

In 2017, Apholz tested positive for cannabis in a random drug screening but was allowed to keep his job under a “last chance agreement” he signed with the city. Under the terms of the agreement, he was subject to termination for future violations of the city’s drug policies.

Apholz tested positive for cannabis in a random drug screening again in 2020 and was subsequently suspended and eventually fired. He then filed suit in state Supreme Court in Montgomery County, alleging unlawful employment discrimination and failure to accommodate his disability as required by the New York Humans Rights Law.

A year before the second positive drug screening, Apholz had obtained a medical marijuana recommendation for lower back pain. In a five-day trial before Judge Rebecca Slezak, Apholz’s attorneys noted that he only used cannabis in capsule form “in the evening at home when his pain was at its worst” and had never used medical marijuana at work. According to court records, Apholz notified “agents” of the city that he was a certified patient in the state Medical Marijuana Program and had a valid Department of Health certification for a medical marijuana prescription at the time of the drug screening.

The city “was made aware of plaintiff’s prescription multiple times, and therefore his disability, before he was terminated,” court filings state. “Defendant has presented no evidence that plaintiff’s use of marijuana impacted his ability to complete his job duties in any way.”

“The evidence indicates that plaintiff was an effective worker while having his marijuana prescription, and that he can perform his job safely and satisfactorily, and defendant has failed to provide any evidence on the record that plaintiff’s use of marijuana has ever negatively impacted his job performance or placed anyone in danger,” court filings state.

Attorneys for the city argued that Apholz had not properly notified the city’s employee relations director about his disability and medical marijuana prescription as required by city policy. Instead, the city maintained that Apholz had notified city engineer Mike Clark of his medical marijuana registration on March 5, 2020, after he had already been suspended for the second failed drug screening. Additionally, the city’s attorneys claimed that Apholz never presented any affirmation the prescription would not interfere with his performance of his “safety sensitive position” involving the use of large machinery and handling hazardous chemicals.

Jury Finds In Patients’ Favor

The jury reached its verdict on June 30, finding that the city discriminated against Apholz for using medical marijuana and awarding him a judgment of $191,762. He is also eligible to request the judge to order reinstatement to his job and for the city to pay his legal fees.

“The jury found that senior Amsterdam city officials refused to provide Mr. Apholz an accommodation for his medical condition after he informed the city that he had a medical marijuana prescription following a random drug test, and summarily fired him on March 16, 2020 without a civil service hearing and without having any discussions with him about his medical condition,” according to a statement from Luibrand quoted by The Daily Gazette.

Aaron Bloom, the CEO of DocMJ, a medical marijuana physician practice that provides compassionate care to patients, says that the jury’s verdict underscores the importance of laws that protect medical cannabis patients.
“Respecting patients’ medical cannabis rights, particularly in the workplace, is of utmost importance. It is crucial to acknowledge the legitimacy of medical cannabis as a therapeutic option and ensure that patients who rely on it for their well-being are treated with fairness and understanding,” Bloom writes in an email to High Times. “Medical cannabis patients also have a duty to not show up for work under the influence of cannabis in a manner that violates workplace safety. By providing appropriate accommodations and respecting the rights of employees with valid medical cannabis prescriptions, we can create an environment that promotes inclusivity and supports individuals in managing their health conditions effectively.”

The post New York Town Owes Nearly $200,000 After Firing Medical Cannabis Patient appeared first on High Times.

North Carolina Senate Approves Medical Pot Bill

March 2, 2023 Published by

The North Carolina Senate this week approved a bill to legalize marijuana, bringing the measure one step away from heading to the state House of Representatives for consideration. The bill, titled the North Carolina Compassionate Care Act (Senate Bill 3), passed handily with little debate in the state Senate on Tuesday by a vote of 36-10. The bipartisan bill was introduced on January 25 by Republican Senators Bill Rabon and Michael Lee and Democratic Senator Paul Lowe. 

“The purpose of the bill is to allow for tightly regulated use of medical cannabis, only by those with debilitating illnesses,” Rabon said on the Senate floor before Tuesday’s vote. 

“The recreational sale or use of marijuana remains, under this legislation, illegal,” he added.

If signed into law, the bill would legalize the medicinal use of cannabis for patients with one or more specified qualifying serious medical conditions such as cancer, ALS, Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and others. Unlike the more comprehensive medical marijuana programs in many other states, however, the bill does not legalize the use of medical marijuana by patients diagnosed with chronic pain.

Before the bill was approved last week by the Senate Judiciary Committee, the sponsors of the bill emphasized that the measure does not legalize recreational marijuana. Instead, the intent of the legislation “is to only make changes to existing state law that are necessary to protect patients and their doctors from criminal and civil penalties and would not intend to change current civil and criminal laws for the use of non-medical marijuana,” Rabon told reporters on February 21.

Under the bill, patients with a qualifying “debilitating medical condition” would be allowed to use medical marijuana. The bill permits the smoking and vaping of medical cannabis by patients whose doctors have recommended a specific form and dosage of medical marijuana. Physicians would be required to review a patient’s continued eligibility for the medical marijuana program annually. Smoking medical cannabis in public or near schools and churches would not be legal under the measure.

The bill requires patients and qualified caregivers to obtain a medical marijuana identification card from the state. The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services would be responsible for creating “a secure, confidential, electronic database containing information about qualified patients, designated caregivers, and physicians,” according to the text of the measure. The bill also creates an 11-member advisory panel appointed by the governor and lawmakers to review proposals for new qualifying medical conditions.

North Carolina Bill Establishes Oversight Commission

Additionally, the legislation establishes a Medical Cannabis Production Commission to oversee medical cannabis producers and ensure a sufficient supply of medical marijuana is produced for the state’s registered patients. The legislation authorizes the licensing of up to 10 businesses to grow, process, and sell cannabis, and permits each producer to operate up to eight medical marijuana dispensaries. Under the bill, the state would levy a 10% tax on the monthly revenue of each medicinal cannabis producer. The bill also requires regulators to establish a tracking system to monitor the production, movement, and sale of cannabis products from cultivator to consumer. 

“Those suppliers must meet strict requirements for how to locate and operate their facilities, how to grow their cannabis and how to package and sell their inventory,” Rabon said on the Senate floor. “They must track every product from seed to sale.”

Only one lawmaker, Republican Senator Jim Burgin, spoke against the measure on Tuesday, saying that “marijuana is not medicine” and has not been approved for medicinal use by the federal government. 

“It’s bad for kids,” Burgin said. ”I think this bill sets up big government, and I think it can easily be changed to legalize marijuana” for recreational use, he added.

Senate leader Phil Berger, one of the 16 Republicans who voted for the measure, praised Rabon and the other sponsors of the bill for their work to gain consensus among their colleagues before the bill came up for a vote by the full Senate.

“The lack of debate on the floor really is a reflection on how much work Senator Rabon and the other sponsors have done over the past two years in just making people aware of what the bill does, answering questions, modifying the language,” Berger said.

Senate Bill 3 still faces one more vote in the North Carolina Senate before heading to the state House of Representatives for consideration. Republican House Speaker Tim Moore said the bill has some support in the House, according to a report from the Associated Press. If passed by both chambers of the legislature, the bill would head to the desk of Democratic Governor Roy Cooper, who has indicated support for legalizing medical marijuana and decriminalizing possession of small amounts of cannabis by adults.

The post North Carolina Senate Approves Medical Pot Bill appeared first on High Times.

North Carolina Lawmakers Renew Medical Cannabis Push

February 17, 2023 Published by

The North Carolina General Assembly will once again play host to a debate over medical cannabis legalization, as supporters hope the 2023 session turns out better than last year.

Local news station WNCN reports that a “bipartisan group in the state Senate is trying again this year to pass a bill legalizing medical marijuana, as new polling this week shows popular support,” and that, on Wednesday, the state Senate Judiciary Committee discussed the proposal, “which is largely similar to a bill the chamber passed last year but that the House never considered.”

“There’s hardly a family in this state or in this nation that hasn’t been touched at some point by someone who would benefit from this bill,” said Republican Sen. Bill Rabon, a sponsor of the measure, as quoted by WNCN.

The bill, titled the “North Carolina Compassionate Care Act,” would make medical cannabis treatment available to patients with the following qualifying conditions: “Cancer; Epilepsy; Positive status for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV); Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDs); Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS); Crohn’s disease; Sickle cell anemia; Parkinson’s disease; Post-traumatic stress disorder … Multiple sclerosis; Cachexia or wasting syndrome; Severe or persistent nausea in a person who is not pregnant that is related to end-of-life or hospice care, or who is bedridden or homebound because of a condition; A terminal illness when the patient’s remaining life expectancy is less than six months; [or] A condition resulting in the individual receiving hospice care.”

Patients who have “experienced one or more traumatic events” may also qualify for the treatment, per the language of the bill, which says that “[a]cceptable evidence shall include, but is not limited to, proof of military service in an active combat zone, that the person was the victim of a violent or sexual crime, or that the person was a first responder.”

The bill says that details of the trauma “shall not be required.” 

Republicans hold majorities in both the state Senate and House of Representatives. Last year, a virtually identical medical cannabis legalization bill passed out of the state Senate, but ultimately failed to advance out of the state House. 

North Carolina is one of the few remaining states where both medical and recreational pot are still illegal. 

The state’s Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, has expressed his support for both. 

“Conviction of simple possession can mar people’s records for life and maybe even prevent them from getting a job,” Cooper said in October, following President Joe Biden’s decision to pardon individuals with federal convictions of simple marijuana possession.

In his announcement at the time, Biden urged “all Governors to do the same with regard to state offenses.”

“As I often said during my campaign for President, no one should be in jail just for using or possessing marijuana. Sending people to prison for possessing marijuana has upended too many lives and incarcerated people for conduct that many states no longer prohibit. Criminal records for marijuana possession have also imposed needless barriers to employment, housing, and educational opportunities. And while white and Black and brown people use marijuana at similar rates, Black and brown people have been arrested, prosecuted, and convicted at disproportionate rates,” Biden said in a statement at the time.

Cooper echoed the president’s sentiments.

“North Carolina should take steps to end this stigma,” Cooper said.

There is reason to believe that voters in the Tar Heel State are ready for lawmakers to take action. 

As WNCN noted, a “poll this week by Meredith College found 73 percent of voters support legalizing medical marijuana while 15 percent oppose it and 12 percent said they were unsure.”

The post North Carolina Lawmakers Renew Medical Cannabis Push appeared first on High Times.

South Carolina Medical Cannabis Bill Heads to House Floor

April 11, 2022 Published by

A bill to legalize medical cannabis in South Carolina is headed for a vote in the state House of Representatives after the measure was approved by a legislative committee last week. The bill, known as the Compassionate Care Act, was approved by the House Medical, Military, Public and Municipal Affairs Committee by a vote of 15-3 on Thursday.

The legislation would create one of the nation’s strictest medical cannabis programs, allowing only patients with specified serious medical conditions to use a limited selection of cannabis products.

“Anytime as a legislative body we can do something to help people, we ought to give that every consideration,” said state Representative Wendy Brawley as the measure was considered by House lawmakers last week.

Under the Compassionate Care Act (S.150/H. 3361), patients with one or more qualifying health conditions would be permitted to use cannabis medicinally. Patients would be required to meet with a physician in person to receive a recommendation to use medical pot.

Qualifying debilitating medical conditions include cancer, multiple sclerosis, a neurological disease or disorder (including epilepsy), sickle cell disease, glaucoma, PTSD, autism, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, cachexia, a condition causing a person to be home-bound that includes severe or persistent nausea, terminal illness with a life expectancy of less than one year, a chronic medical condition causing severe and persistent muscle spasms or a chronic medical condition for which an opioid is or could be prescribed based on accepted standards of care.

The measure does not allow patients to smoke cannabis and possession of plant forms of cannabis would still be a crime. Medical products including topicals, oils and vapes would be produced by regulated suppliers. Patients would be limited to purchasing a two-week supply of cannabis products at one time.

Senate Approved Bill in February

The bill was approved by the South Carolina Senate in February after first being classified as priority legislation a month earlier. The bill was originally introduced in 2015 by Senator Tom Davis. In 2018, the Senate Medical Affairs Committee advanced the bill to the Senate floor but the legislation was blocked from coming up for debate. At the close of the 2021 legislative session, Republican leaders promised Davis that the bill would come up for a vote this year.

To gain the approval of lawmakers in deeply conservative South Carolina, Davis has admitted that the bill would create one of the nation’s most strict medical cannabis programs. While members of the House debated the legislation last week, Davis said the bill is designed to prevent recreational cannabis use.

“I want people to look at South Carolina’s law and say, ‘If you want a law that helps patients and empowers doctors but doesn’t go down the slope to recreational, this is your bill,’” Davis told his colleagues.

Before the vote, the members of the committee also heard from Gary Hess, the founder and executive director of Louisiana-based Veterans Alliance for Holistic Alternatives. He told lawmakers that he was forced to purchase illicit cannabis to cope with the pain and PTSD he has endured since suffering a traumatic brain injury in the Iraq War.

“Here’s the sad truth, is that if I continue to rely on the VA in the western model of medicine, I would not be standing here in front of you today,” Hess told lawmakers at the committee hearing. “The truth is that the medical efficacy of this plant cannot be denied. Yet here, in South Carolina, veterans returning to their communities after service are being forced to become criminals placing themselves, their families and their children at risk to access this medicine.”

The House committee approved two amendments to the legislation before approving the bill. One amendment would require background checks for medical cannabis distributors and security plans for their businesses. The other would require cannabis products to be labeled with ingredients including the cultivar of cannabis used to manufacture the product.

Members of the committee rejected dozens of amendments from Representative Vic Dabney, who had proposed more than 100 changes to the legislation. He withdrew the remaining amendments but said he would have more proposed changes for the bill when it is taken up by the full House.

“My concern is, across the nation, wherever these bills have passed, a lot of problems develop,” said Dabney. He said he agrees in principle with allowing access to the drug for patients with serious medical conditions, but characterized the legislation as “too broad based.”

But Representative Deon Tedder said the benefits of legalizing medical cannabis in South Carolina outweigh the risks.

“I’d rather have people having access to safe use of medical marijuana than have them go out and try to go to another state or illegally obtain marijuana,” said Tedder.

The post South Carolina Medical Cannabis Bill Heads to House Floor appeared first on High Times.

Cannabis 101: Understanding Compassionate Care

March 17, 2022 Published by

When it comes to the medical marijuana era—including understanding compassionate care—it pays to know a bit of history. 

Far from being a mere historical footnote in the long march towards legalization, the advent of state-sanctioned medical cannabis markets represented a game-changing victory on multiple fronts. From a policy perspective, the success of California’s Prop 215 in 1996 set in motion a domino effect that inspired numerous other states to follow suit by subsequently enacting medical marijuana laws of their own. 

What these laws accomplished was nothing short of radical: They allowed those suffering from a variety of medical ailments to purchase, consume and benefit from cannabis without fear of legal repercussion. But it didn’t go off quite so cleanly. Many licensed operations endured frequent, aggressive raids from federal authorities. Despite such challenges, some craft cannabis cultivators in California’s Emerald Triangle still pine for the medical-only days.

It makes sense. As a far looser market, requirements for testing, taxes, packaging and licensing all still existed but were notably less stringent than they’d ultimately become following California’s move to legalize recreational cannabis sales in 2018.

Another reason for these laments stems from the highly lucrative, rapidly growing cannabis industry, with its focus clearly shifting from medicine to money. Case in point: It took a monumental effort from advocates to fix a loophole in Prop 64 (California’s adult-use bill) that essentially killed the state’s landmark compassionate care program. To understand what happened, one needs to look at how these programs work and who they were originally designed to help.

Free Weed

The underlying concept behind compassionate care programs is that those in need should always have access to safe, quality medicine—regardless of whether they can afford it. At the onset, this group was largely composed of those living with HIV/AIDS, and cannabis had been deemed a potentially effective treatment for related symptoms, such as nausea, loss of appetite, pain relief and depression. With some hope in sight, 

brave individuals, including Prop 215 co-author Dennis Peron and the legendary “Brownie” Mary Rathbun, risked prison time to ensure patients hospitalized in San Francisco-area hospital AIDS wards were able to access cannabis.

When Prop 215 became law in 1996, it established the basic tenets for how cannabis compassionate care programs should operate. It’s a blueprint that basically continues to this day: Cultivators donate flower to licensed dispensaries, which in turn offer it to qualified patients at discounted rates, or for no charge at all. One of the reasons these programs worked was because, as a charitable enterprise, donations of cannabis weren’t subject to tax fees. Unfortunately, as mentioned above, this became a big problem after California enacted Prop 64 in 2016.

The issue became that in addition to requiring licensed growers to pay high taxes on cannabis cultivated for sale, Prop 64 failed to exempt flower grown for compassionate care from taxation. Normally happy to donate, cultivators understandably balked at being asked to pay for giving away free product. Thankfully, the issue was resolved in 2020 when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the Dennis Peron and Brownie Mary Act, once again making it possible for operators to distribute medical cannabis without the brutal taxes.

But as more and more states opt to evolve their industries from medical-only to a hybrid of adult-use and medical sales, are all patients being given the care and attention they deserve?

Making Room for Medicine

Barring federal policy reform and the establishment of a new nationwide set of standards, to gain the most accurate picture, one must approach this issue on a state-by-state level. As things stand today, there are now medical-only states, states with laws supporting both medical and recreational markets, and states where all products with more than a trace of THC continue to be fully prohibited.

Fortunately, a combination of thoughtful policymakers, seasoned advocates and generous cannabis companies are working to ensure patients continue to be an overall priority in the industry. In Oregon, for example, many dispensaries are dual-licensed—a quirk of the state’s legislation, but also a testament to the stores’ own values and desire to take care of their medical customers. 

(To clarify, being a medical patient doesn’t automatically make someone a compassionate care patient, though there’s certainly overlap between these groups.)

How compassionate care programs will figure into federal legalization policy when such a day eventually arrives will be a matter of which bill gets the favor of Congress. If those in charge do attempt to forget the rights of individuals needing access to free or discounted cannabis, one can expect cannabis advocates to fight for patient rights, as they have since the days of Prop 215. 

The post Cannabis 101: Understanding Compassionate Care appeared first on Cannabis Now.

South Carolina Senate To Debate Medical Cannabis Bill

January 25, 2022 Published by

South Carolina senators will debate a bill to legalize the medicinal use of cannabis this week after an eight-year effort to bring the proposal to the floor of the state Senate. If passed, Senate Bill 150 would allow patients with certain debilitating medical conditions to use medical cannabis products. A companion measure, House Bill 3361, is also pending in the South Carolina House of Representatives.

Last week, Senators unanimously agreed to assign special order status to the bill, which faces strong opposition in deeply conservative South Carolina. As a legislative priority, senators will be required to approve or reject the bill before moving on to other legislation. Debate on the bill is expected to begin Tuesday or Wednesday of this week, according to media reports.

The measure, known as the South Carolina Compassionate Care Act, was first proposed in 2015 by Republican Sen. Tom Davis. In 2018, the Senate Medical Affairs Committee advanced the bill to the Senate floor but senators opposed to the measure blocked the legislation from coming up for debate. At the close of the 2021 legislative session, Republican leaders promised Davis that the bill would come up for a vote this year.

“If you pound at the door long enough. If you make your case. If the public is asking for something, the state Senate owes a debate,” Davis told The Post and Courier. “The people of South Carolina deserve to know where their elected officials stand on this issue.”

South Carolina Medical Cannabis Bill Contains Strict Limits

The Compassionate Care Act would allow patients with one or more qualifying health conditions to use cannabis medicinally. Qualifying debilitating medical conditions include cancer, multiple sclerosis, a neurological disease or disorder (including epilepsy), sickle cell disease, glaucoma, PTSD, autism, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, cachexia, a condition causing a person to be home-bound that includes severe or persistent nausea, terminal illness with a life expectancy of less than one year, a chronic medical condition causing severe and persistent muscle spasms or a chronic medical condition for which an opioid is or could be prescribed based on accepted standards of care.

Smoking cannabis would not be allowed. Instead, patients would have access to medical marijuana products including vaporizers, topicals, and patches. Patients would be allowed to purchase up to a two-week supply of cannabis products at a time.

The bill also establishes rules for physicians to recommend medical cannabis and regulations for the production and sale of medical marijuana, including a requirement that cannabis dispensaries complete a licensing process every two years. Dispensaries would be required to contract with a state-licensed pharmacist, physician’s assistant or clinical practice nurse with training in the medicinal use of cannabis. Cannabis products would be subject to testing and labeling requirements and a seed-to-sale tracking system would be established to monitor transfers of medical marijuana products. Davis said the legislation would create the nation’s strictest medicinal cannabis program.

“I want to empower physicians. I want to help patients who could benefit from cannabis to alleviate their medical conditions,” Davis told reporters. “But I want it to be tightly regulated and controlled. I don’t want it to be a precursor to adult recreational use.”

Advocates Back Legislation

The South Carolina Compassionate Care Act is supported by medical cannabis advocates including Jill Swing, the founder and president of the South Carolina Compassionate Care Alliance. She believes her daughter would benefit from medical cannabis.

“Mary Louise shouldn’t have to continue to suffer and other patients across the state shouldn’t continue to suffer when this medication is available in 36 other states,” said Swing.

“I genuinely hope that every single Senator that walks into that chamber opens their minds and their hearts,” she added.

But Davis’ bill is opposed by law enforcement leaders, who cite public safety issues and the fear that permitting medical marijuana will lead to the legalization of recreational cannabis.

“If marijuana is medicine, it should be regulated as every other medicine is regulated. We are aware of no other medication that has to be approved by the General Assembly,” said Jarrod Bruder, executive director of the South Carolina Sheriff’s Association. “This (bill) includes a lot of other things — including vaping, including edibles. This is not going to your local pharmacy — it’s going to a dispensary. This is not being treated like every other medicine is.”

Kevin Tolson, the executive director of the law enforcement group, said in a statement that legalizing medical cannabis in South Carolina would lead to increased traffic accidents and financial crimes by cannabis businesses.

“I understand supporters of this bill are seeking to bring comfort and relief to friends and family members who are suffering from debilitating illnesses,” Tolson wrote. “But I can’t endorse or even ignore the attempt to provide relief through illegal methods, especially when those attempts will jeopardize public safety.”

Davis, however, believes that public opinion is on the side of reform. In December, a poll of 300 registered voters found that 54 percent favored legalizing the medicinal use of cannabis, with another 14 percent undecided on the issue.

The post South Carolina Senate To Debate Medical Cannabis Bill appeared first on High Times.