Thread by @IAmNickReynolds

Good morning all!

The South Carolina Senate will return today to debate @SenTomDavisSC's medical marijuana after 8 hours of amendments yesterday.

Many were carried over. Only a handful passed outright. Here's some of the most significant/potential changes.

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ADOPTED: A dual Davis/Kimbrell amendment reducing the maximum size of grow operations from 15 to 2 acres. Would also eliminate dispensaries from the equation, creating something more akin to a pharmacy, with a program to track cannabis products like opioids or other meds.

ADOPTED: An opt-out provision for municipalities that don't want to participate in medical cannabis.

Since the bill only allows a limited number per county anyway, I assume there could be counties that could just go ahead and ban it outright, but I'd welcome a fact check.

ADOPTED: This @KimpsonForSC amendment to prioritize the state's 216 hemp farms and 9 hemp processors in consideration for medical cannabis grow operations.

Other amendments in the ether seek to ban out-of-state product as well.

https://twitter.com/KimpsonForSC/status/1491228477982654464

Of the 40+ amendments last night, most were carried over. Some seemed designed to get talking points in, but others do feel like they have a good chance at inclusion.

These include sales taxes, the exclusion of chronic pain as a qualifying factor, and anti-corruption measures.

There were also a handful of amendments written up to assuage concerns that doctors could act improperly within the program, including removing doctors' immunity for improperly writing a medical marijuana script, and limiting the total number of cards they can issue annually.

Anyway, gonna be another long day. Senate gavels in at 11 a.m. this morning.

END