This comes from Tom Davis:
Statement by SC State Senator Tom Davis
Earlier today, SC State Senator Tom Davis (R-Beaufort) filed S1035, a bill whose objective is to allow doctors in South Carolina to prescribe Cannabidiol (CBD) oil, a non-psychoactive chemical in cannabis, to South Carolina patients who suffer with intractable epilepsy. The following state senators have signed onto S1035 as cosponsors: Ray Cleary (R-Georgetown), Katrina Shealy (R-Lexington), Larry Martin (R-Pickens), Larry Grooms (R-Berkeley), Lee Bright (R-Greenville), and Luke Rankin (R-Horry). A copy of the bill is attached.
Davis said he recently became aware of the therapeutic benefits of CBD oil when one of his constituents, Harriett Hilton, told him about her six-year-old granddaughter, Mary Louise Swing, who resides in Mt. Pleasant. A picture of Mary Louise is attached. “Harriett told me that Mary Louise sometimes suffers up to 100 epileptic seizures an hour,” Davis said, “and that none of the drugs prescribed by her doctors at the MUSC Epilepsy Center has provided relief. Harriett also told me that Mary Louise’s caregivers at MUSC believe CBD might help, but that the law prevents them from prescribing it to her. That is morally wrong, and the purpose of S1035 is to jumpstart a process to remove those legal barriers.”
Scientific and clinical studies have confirmed CBD’s potential as an effective treatment for those with intractable epilepsy. Accordingly, last fall the federal Food and Drug Administration green-lighted clinical studies of CBD as an anti-seizure medication at two research universities in New York and San Francisco. The drug — manufactured by GW Pharmaceuticals, called “Epidiolex™,” and in the form of a liquid that is administered orally with a syringe dropper – is currently being prescribed by doctors to patients with intractable epilepsy at the NYU School of Medicine and at University of California at San Francisco.
“The doctors and medical research facilities at MUSC are every bit as good as those in New York and San Francisco,” Davis said. “I want to legally empower MUSC and its epileptologists to prescribe CBD oil to those with intractable epilepsy like Mary Louise, and S1035 outlines the critical path to making that happen.”
S1035 would revise a South Carolina law passed in 1980 titled “The Controlled Substances Therapeutic Research Act of 1980,” which authorized DHEC to engage in clinical studies regarding certain medical therapeutic uses of marijuana. That 1980 law has never been funded and has lain dormant, and Davis says it’s time to breathe life into it. “I realize that federal law still classifies cannabis as a Schedule I controlled substance,” said Davis. “But as the FDA itself has acknowledged, it makes no sense to ban CBD oil, a non-psychoactive chemical derived from cannabis. You can’t get high on it and it has no street value, and it makes zero sense to legally prohibit doctors from prescribing something that would relieve their patients’ suffering.”
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Of all the legalization arguments I’ve heard and seen, this one makes the most sense.
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The pendulum is swinging and there’s little that can be done to stop it. Decriminalization followed by legalization (along with taxation) will happen before the end of the decade.
By the end of THIS decade? Within 6 years? In THIS state? We’ll think about decriminalization just as soon as CO decides to re-outlaw it. When in doubt wait for the chance to take the aggrieved reactionary path.
I believe that once doctors are allowed to prescribe for one condition, they are allowed to prescribe off-label for others. Which makes sense. Just because one constituent’s child has epilepsy, shouldn’t deprive other sick people from benefitting…..
Of all the legalization arguments I’ve heard and seen, this one makes the most sense.
-Brad
What a bland, understated comment. It is mind boggling that you can show such enthusiasm for something as utterly pointless as government restructuring yet can’t find anything more inspiring to say than this about something of genuine importance.
Of course the medicinal use of marijuana should be legal. It has valuable therapeutic value for a wide variety of ailments. It is inexcusable that we don’t pass an all encompassing law that would allow the use of marijuana and it’s derivatives for medicinal purposes. Show some enthusiasm for this bill but don’t stop there. Get on board the train now before we end up looking backwards like so we tend to do on so many any other issues: slavery, Jim Crow laws, inter-racial marriage, women in military colleges, blue laws, gay marriage. Perhaps we can at least be in the middle of the pack rather that bringing up the rear on something.
I have Parkinson’s diisease! It is a terrible illness. In 7 years I have lost my sence of smell and most taste.
I can barely walk without assistance and I take 30 min. to get dressed. My cognative thinking is almost gone. I worked for the Dept of defence for 47 years and planned to retire and do things with my grand children( 12 of them.)
The hannibinoids THC & CBD have been shown to restore brain production of the neurons in the brain.
Who do these people think they are to restrict me using a drug that could possibly cure or slow down symptoms. What to do in regard to this issue is to reclassify Cannibis and assign it to the bureau of alcohol. tobacco and firearms. We already have red dots, smoke shops and firearm shops. no brainer
67,000 people in state have Parkinson’s and I will assure you they agree with this simple proposal