South Carolina patients may gain legal access to medical cannabis under dormant state laws triggered by the Trump administration's move to reschedule marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III.
An existing South Carolina law requires state officials to reschedule any substance within 30 days of a federal rescheduling action. A separate 1980 law, the South Carolina Controlled Substances Therapeutic Research Act, would authorize cancer and glaucoma patients to obtain medical cannabis “through whatever means” the state health commissioner “deems most appropriate consistent with federal law,” with a Review Advisory Board able to extend the program to additional disease groups.
Gov. Henry McMaster’s (R) office confirmed state law will “require the State to mirror the new federal order” on rescheduling. The South Carolina Department of Public Health said it is “aware of the proposed rescheduling of medical marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act” and is “assessing the impacts to DPH and the state of South Carolina.”
State Sen. Tom Davis (R), who has sponsored medical cannabis bills across multiple sessions, said the federal move triggers “a chain of legal consequences in South Carolina that the General Assembly can no longer ignore.” His bill would allow patients to obtain cannabis from “therapeutic cannabis pharmacies” licensed by the state Board of Pharmacy, with a doctor’s recommendation required for qualifying conditions including specific ailments, terminal illnesses, and chronic diseases where opioids are the standard of care. Davis said the legislation “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.”
A Davis-sponsored bill passed the Senate in 2024 but stalled in the House; a 2025 version also failed to advance. The Senate had passed an earlier version in 2022 that died in the House on procedural grounds. House Speaker Murrell Smith (R) has cited insufficient Republican caucus support. Some lawmakers have raised concerns about a path toward adult-use legalization, pharmacist liability, and federal preemption.
A 2024 poll found 93 percent of South Carolina Democrats, 74 percent of Republicans, and 84 percent of independents support medical marijuana legalization.
