“Simply using hemp-derived cannabinoid in place of THC or marijuana is merely a distinction without a real difference.”
By Adrian Ashford, South Carolina Daily Gazette
South Carolina law enforcement chiefs are urging legislators to reject a freshman lawmaker’s proposal to regulate, not ban, intoxicating hemp products for people like his son, who uses them to treat seizures.
It’s a bad idea, according to leaders of the State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) and associations representing police chiefs and sheriffs across South Carolina, whose letters to House leaders were shared Monday with all 124 members.
The law enforcement leaders don’t want an amendment offered last week by the state’s newest legislator, GOP Rep. Greg Ford of Summerville, to come back up. Disagreement on the House floor last Wednesday among the chamber’s ruling Republicans resulted in legislation getting sent back to the committee that advanced it.
The vote to recommit the bill, which would ban most hemp products infused with THC, followed an unexpectedly close vote (59-52) to reject Ford’s attempt to completely overhaul it.
Ford, elected just last month, told his colleagues how his 24-year-old son uses hemp products with THC for relief from seizures. He credits the products with saving his son’s life.
“The reason why he turned 24 is because we found the hemp product,” Ford said.
He said he used to grow and process the hemp himself, testing combinations of THC and CBD, another chemical compound that’s not psychoactive, until he found what worked for his son.
His amendment would have allowed businesses to apply for a license to sell beverages, edibles and tinctures containing up to 10 milligrams of THC per serving, while banning sales to anyone under 21.
That vastly broadened the bill sent back to committee, authored by House Judiciary Chairman Weston Newton of Bluffton, which would ban all THC products except “intoxicating hemp beverages,” which could have no more than 5 milligrams per 12 ounces.
Ordinarily, legislation sent back to a committee from the House floor never resurfaces. It’s a rarely used way to kill a bill.
But the debate over THC hemp products isn’t going away.
A different bill by Newton that bans all THC products remains on the House calendar. The House Judiciary Committee could try to find a compromise to send back to the floor. Plus, a Senate panel is scheduled to take up a separate THC bill this week that more simply bans sales to people under 21. The House passed that bill nearly unanimously last year.
SLED Chief Mark Keel, who for years has led the opposition to legalizing medical marijuana in South Carolina, said Ford’s proposal would essentially “legalize recreational marijuana.”
“Simply using hemp-derived cannabinoid in place of THC or marijuana is merely a distinction without a real difference as it relates to intoxicating THC products that get you high,” Keel wrote in a letter dated February 6. “In short, this amendment creates an enforcement and inspection structure that is wholly unenforceable.”
The state’s top law enforcement officer said he’d support a total ban on hemp-derived THC products. But short of that, he said he would support legislation that strictly regulates THC beverages and gummies for sale to adults 21 and older and available only in liquor stores. Legal beverages should be capped at 5 milligrams per 12-ounce serving. A four-pack of gummies should not contain more than 10 milligrams total, he wrote.
And he believes SLED should maintain inspection authority, rather than giving the Department of Agriculture the authority to inspect businesses that sell THC products, as Ford proposed.
In a separate letter, the director of the South Carolina Police Chiefs’ Association said the marketing of hemp products has blurred the lines on what’s illegal, and the floor debate further “muddied” the message.
In 2014, South Carolina legislators passed a very narrow law allowing patients with severe epilepsy, or their caregivers, to legally possess cannabidiol, or CBD, a non-psychoactive oil derived from hemp. But then the 2018 federal Farm Bill effectively legalized hemp and very low levels of THC extracted from it, which led to a profusion of THC-infused products sold at stores statewide.
The only way to verify whether the amount of THC is legal is to test the product.
“We now encounter mind altering drugs that are sold at gas stations, smoke shops, and even grocery stores,” wrote JJ Jones, director of the police chiefs association. “The marketing of the ‘hemp’ products is so gray that law enforcement, the general public, and more importantly our youth, are left wondering what is legal and what is illegal.”
The bill sent back to committee would have left CBD products legal. But Ford told the SC Daily Gazette on Monday that CBD alone doesn’t help his son, who uses a cannabis tincture—a liquid dispensed with a dropper.
Ford said his proposal would both help alleviate suffering and enable businesses that sell the products to survive.
But unlike medical marijuana bills that have failed repeatedly since 2014, Ford’s proposal would not limit sales to patients or prescriptions. Anyone 21 and older could buy the products.
He told the Gazette that he came up with the 10 milligram THC limit per serving after talking to business owners who sell hemp products, who said that was on the low end of the dosage in their products.
What the 2018 federal law legalized are delta-9 THC concentrations in hemp up to 0.3 percent “on a dry weight basis.”
The House debate did not fall along party lines. People on completely different sides of the issue voted together to recommit the bill.
Joining Ford in stopping the advancement of a near-total ban were socially conservative Republicans who want a total ban and Democrats who support legalizing marijuana.
On Monday, Attorney General Alan Wilson (R) urged the House Judiciary Committee to move the bill back to the floor.
“No more games. It is time to remove the gray area regarding THC-infused hemp beverages and provide necessary guardrails to ensure these intoxicating drinks don’t continue ending up in the hands of kids,” Wilson wrote in a news release.
This story was first published by South Carolina Daily Gazette.
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