Marijuana Policy Project

Local radio talk-show host Richard Todd knows about the deep-seated stigma of medical marijuana in South Carolina. And he knows that few, if any, elected officials will dare touch the subject, even after the Obama administration last week ordered federal drug enforcers not to arrest users and suppliers in states where the medicinal use is legal. It is not legal in South Carolina.

As a vocal libertarian, a supporter of states' rights and the relative of someone who found relief from chemotherapy side effects in the form of marijuana, Todd finds it "frustrating" and "staggering" that it remains outlawed in all but 13 states.

"It (legalizing medical marijuana) is such a no-brainer," said Todd, noting that if sick people need it, they should be able to get it legally.

Based on calls to his talk show, local support for it runs about 50-50, though he admitted that his libertarian bent probably lures like-minded listeners. The single argument against it, Todd noted, was that many considered it a "back-door legalization" of pot.

As for politicians, Todd has experienced the same reaction as The Post and Courier did in the past few days.

Nobody seems to want to talk about it, even in the wake of President Barack Obama's mandate last week and whether that may represent the removal of an obstacle to legalizing medical marijuana in the state.

Phone calls to a half-dozen legislators, including the chairmen of the S.C. Senate and House medical committees, were not returned.

Even staff at South Carolina's major research hospital, the Medical University of South Carolina, didn't want to talk.

"No one here prescribes or is a proponent of prescribing it," said Heather Woolwine, MUSC media relations director. "All (the people) that I talked to felt it was a nonissue for us because South Carolina does not allow it and probably will not change its stance on that. No one is comfortable publicly commenting on something that they don't feel is an issue facing South Carolina."

On a national level, support for legalizing marijuana for any purpose is growing, but still not favored by the majority.

A current Gallup Poll found that 44 percent of Americans favor making marijuana legal, versus 54 percent who are opposed. Support has risen from the 25 percent range in the 1970s to the mid-1990s and 31 percent in 2000. But support falls largely along political lines, with self-described liberals favoring it. The largest support, 78 percent, comes from liberals.

A representative from a major marijuana legalization lobbying group, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML, doesn't have much hope for medical marijuana in the Palmetto State or the Southeast.

"South Carolina might be a problem because it, like most states in the Southeast, doesn't have the initiative process," Russ Belville, NORML's chapter coordinator, said of a petition process that forces a public vote on a law. "Without that, you have to rely on a sympathetic legislator who is willing to shepherd a bill through a committee and be willing to take the political flak for it."

Less than three years ago, South Carolina had that legislator. Republican Sen. William Mescher sponsored a bill to legalize the use of medical marijuana after watching his wife suffer from cancer. The bill never got out of the Senate Medical Affairs Committee, and in April 2007, Mescher died.

In North Carolina, Guilford County Democratic Rep. Earl Jones sponsored a bill last spring to legalize medical marijuana, noting that it has "less side effects than other drugs that citizens throughout this country use regularly." Part of the bill included taxing growers and distributors, which is estimated to bring in $60 million to state coffers annually.

Unlike South Carolina, Belville says Georgia and Florida have active groups, including NORML chapters, that may take up the cause. Florida is the only state in the Southeast with the initiative process.

Graham Boyd, a Spartanburg native and director of the ACLU's national drug law reform project, was in Charleston Monday for the screening of "American Violet," the true story of a young Texas woman who was exonerated after being arrested on false drug charges.

Boyd said the Obama administration mandate on medical marijuana is part of a trend that is happening in the United States and will happen in South Carolina. "We're seeing a shift from being tough on drugs to being smart about drugs. I think we all would rather use prison space for violent criminals rather than someone who has cancer and is using marijuana for relief from the nausea caused by chemotherapy."