South Carolina House snuffs out medical marijuana again. Now what?

South Carolinians’ hopes for legalized medical cannabis has likely been snuffed out this year.

The S.C. House of Representatives is likely to adjourn May 9 without spending a single moment debating a decade-old proposal by Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, to legalize medical marijuana.

A House ad hoc committee appointed to study the legislation adjourned April 30 without taking a vote on the bill.

Rep. Sylleste Davis, the Moncks Corner Republican who chairs the committee, told reporters after the hearing the group is unlikely to meet again in the five working days left before the end of the 2024 legislative session — a likely indication the House will once again decline to act on the bill despite it passing an oftentimes more deliberative Senate two separate times over the past three years.

“We just don’t have a lot of time,” Davis told reporters. “But I mean, I do think this was a worthwhile effort. It certainly isn’t time wasted. We learned a lot today and got some good information. And we’re just gonna have to see how this other thing plays out.”

The “other thing” Davis referred to was news that broke earlier in the day that the federal Drug Enforcement Administration was planning to reschedule marijuana from a dangerous, Schedule I narcotic to the less severe Schedule III, a classification often reserved for prescription narcotics with low potential for addiction.