The number of hemp farmers in SC is growing fast. How high will it get?

Less than a year into the program, the number of farmers growing hemp in South Carolina could double.

That's because the South Carolina Department of Agriculture is making more permits available for farmers looking to participate in the Industrial Hemp Pilot Program.

The SCDA will select up to 40 farmers to receive permits to grow industrial hemp. That's twice the amount of the 20 farmers chosen in the inaugural year of the program.

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As a family medicine and public-health physician practicing in South Carolina for the past 40 years, I see the proposed system for making marijuana available for evidence-based medical treatments as severely flawed.

S.212 provides for a wholly unnecessary system of marijuana cultivation centers, processing sites and dispensaries. The Federal Drug Administration is already working with the federal Drug Enforcement Authority to increase legitimate research on marijuana products for medical use, and the DEA has a well-established system to handle prescription narcotics.

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Former U.S. attorney for South Carolina Bill Nettles is calling for a public referendum on medical marijuana.

Nettles heads Palmetto Medical Cannabis LLC, a group advocating for the legalization of medical cannabis in South Carolina.

"I think it is important that our state Democratic and Republican parties allow primary voters to be heard on the important issue of legalization of medical marijuana for seriously ill patients in our state," he said.

Nettles cited polling data showing 78 percent of South Carolinians support the legalized use of marijuana.

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Medical marijuana cleared a key committee on Thursday and headed to the floor of the S.C. Senate.

But the 8-6 vote by the Senate Medical Affairs Committee came as enforcement leaders are hardening their opposition, saying it is another step toward legalized recreational marijuana in the Palmetto State.

"That's what we've seen in every state," State Law Enforcement Division Chief Mark Keel told The State after the committee vote. "There's not a state that hasn't (gone) in steps. And we've seen our state go through the same steps. From CDB oil to hemp to medical marijuana to recreational marijuana. And that's what we've seen in every state . So I have no reason to think its going to be any different in ours."

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When Mack Hudson of Lexington was 16 years old, he was paralyzed when he fractured his skull, broke his neck and shattered a key vertebrae in a car wreck.

Over the past 10 years, he's been prescribed increasing doses of opioids -- Percocet and Roxycodone to alleviate the pain.

"It messes with my head," he said. "I can't think straight. I can't function straight. I'm just not myself."

So Hudson traveled to California and Colorado to experiment with marijuana.

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An S.C. Senate panel quickly killed a proposal Tuesday that would have created a study committee to research the effects of cannabidiol oil - -- an active ingredient found in marijuana -- on prison inmates with physical and mental illnesses.

The oil -- used sometimes in place of prescription drugs -- can be an effective treatment for people who suffer from epilepsy, schizophrenia and seizures, supporters say.

Originally suggested as a pilot program by state Rep. Mike Pitts, S.C. House budget writers adopted the proviso -- or one-year rule -- as part of the House's 2018-'19 budget proposal in March.

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South Carolina could allow prison inmates with physical or mental-health issues to be treated with cannabidiol oil, an active ingredient found in marijuana plants.

The S.C. House budget-writing committee OK'd an amendment Tuesday that would authorize the S.C. Department of Corrections to start a pilot program to study the effects of cannabidiol oil use on inmates.

South Carolina already has a law -- Julian's Law -- that allows patients with certain forms of epilepsy to use cannabidiol oil.

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A man and woman were charged with child neglect after an infant girl tested positive for marijuana, according to media reports.

Daniel Chambers, 42, and Ashley Willard, 24, both of Union County, were charged Tuesday with unlawful neglect of a child, according to FOX Carolina in Greenville.

Willard tested positive for marijuana on Jan. 13, wspa.com reports.

Union County deputies say that prompted the S.C. Department of Social Services to test a hair sample from the child the same day, according to goupstate.com.

Deputies were notified on Jan. 31, that the baby tested positive for marijuana, according to WSPA.

Willard and Chambers were released from jail Tuesday on $5,000 bond each, according to Union County court records.

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President Barack Obama on Thursday commuted the 20-year prison sentenced imposed on Richard Ruiz Montes, convicted in 2008 for his role in the Modesto's pot-dealing California Healthcare Collective.

In one of his final presidential acts, Obama used his executive authority to cut Montes' sentence by more than half. Now held at a federal facility in Atwater, according to the Bureau of Prisons' inmate locator, the 36-year-old Montes will be released May 19.

He is identified as Richard by the White House and Bureau of Prisons, but has also been known as Ricardo. The White House listed his hometown as Escalon.

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A Pew Research Center survey of nearly 8,000 police officers finds that more than two-thirds of them say that marijuana use should be legal for either personal or medical use.

The nationally representative survey of law enforcement, one of the largest of its kind, found that 32 percent of police officers said marijuana should be legal for medical and recreational use, while 37 percent said it should be legal for medical use only. Another 30 percent said that marijuana should not be legal at all.

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S.C. legislators are gearing up for another fight over a bill that would allow the legal use of medical marijuana in the Palmetto State.

A half-dozen lawmakers Tuesday made their first order of business on the session's opening day the unveiling of the S.C. Compassionate Care Act.

The bill would allow South Carolinians with "debilitating medical conditions" to use medical pot, when approved by a doctor.

Last year, bipartisan efforts to legalize medical marijuana died in House and Senate committees. That effort was opposed by law enforcement officials, who said they feared that legalizing medical marijuana would lead to more pot being available in the state for non-medical uses.

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Mary Louise received her first dose of CBD oil Saturday, about four months after the bill allowing children to receive the oil extracted from marijuana was signed into law. The oil helps children like Mary Louise with severe epilepsy control their seizures.

It took only a simple phrase to see how Mary Louise Swing's life would improve from cannabidiol.

On vacation with family in Myrtle Beach last weekend, Mary Louise stunned her mother, Jill, and a roomful of relatives with a simple "Hi everybody" as she got out of bed.

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Nearly half of the states have approved the medical use of marijuana, as prescribed by a physician, recognizing its therapeutic value for patients with long term pain from cancer, seizures, PTSD, multiple sclerosis, AIDS and other ailments.

Not South Carolina, though. Not yet.

Members of the Senate Medical Affairs Committee on Thursday expressed their sympathy for those South Carolinians who could benefit from having marijuana medically prescribed for pain or nausea.

Then they voted to kill the bill, after first rejecting an amendment that would have resolved many of the issues raised by those who had opposed the bill, including law enforcement officials.

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ORANGEBURG, S.C. - Hillary Clinton, who has long declined to endorse legalized medical or recreational marijuana at the federal level, said over the weekend that she favors changing the rules to allow more research into medical marijuana.

Clinton said she supports removing marijuana from a list of schedule 1 drugs, a classification that prevents federally sponsored research into its effects. As a schedule 1 drug, marijuana is classified among the most dangerous drugs that the federal Drug Enforcement Agency regulates.

"We haven't done research, why? Because it's considered a schedule 1 drug," Clinton said Saturday during a town hall meeting at Claflin University in South Carolina. "I'd like to move it from schedule 1 to schedule 2."

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Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday proposed reclassifying marijuana to make it a less dangerous substance and to encourage more research into its medicinal benefits.

At a town hall in Orangeburg, S.C., Clinton said marijuana, classified in the most dangerous category ("Schedule I") of the Controlled Substances Act, should be "Schedule II" so it can be experimented with and implemented for medical use.

"I do support the use of medical marijuana," she said at the town hall, hosted by journalist Roland Martin and held at Claflin University.

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A local prosecutor in South Carolina said Tuesday that she would not bring charges against a police lieutenant who fatally shot a 19-year-old man during an attempted drug arrest in a Hardee's parking lot in July.

The case has drawn outrage in some quarters, partly because a private autopsy on the man, Zachary Hammond, who was unarmed, indicated that he had been shot from the side and the back, and through his car's side window.

That seemed to contradict the account of the officer who killed him, Lt. Mark Tiller of the Seneca Police Department, who said that he had fired two shots at point-blank range because Mr. Hammond had rapidly accelerated as he drove toward the officer, and that he would have been run over had he not pushed himself off Mr. Hammond's car.

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It took only a simple phrase to see how Mary Louise Swing's life would improve from cannabidiol.

On vacation with family in Myrtle Beach last weekend, Mary Louise stunned her mother, Jill, and a roomful of relatives with a simple "Hi everybody" as she got out of bed.

For 6-year-old Mary Louise, who suffers from intractable epilepsy, it was a small, uplifting first step.

"She just doesn't say that," Jill Swing said. "It's been delightful. She was nonverbal, but she's saying more words now. She's a chatterbox."

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COLUMBIA - A bill that would allow for patients who have severe epilepsy to be treated with a type of medical marijuana is headed for a final vote in the General Assembly next week, where it's expected to pass.

The bill, H. 4803, has already moved through the S.C. House and its passage in the S.C. Senate is expected next week after a key Senate committee moved it unanimously on Thursday.

The bill provides for the potential use of cannabidiol oil (CBD), which contains marijuana extract but little THC, the chemical that produces a "high." The drug has offered hope to many who have difficult-to-treat epileptic symptoms, although clinical trials and extensive medical research is in early stages.

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South Carolina superintendent of education candidate Sheila Gallagher called for legalizing marijuana when she addressed Democrats at the South Carolina Democratic Party convention in Columbia on Saturday afternoon.

Gallagher, of Florence, said legalizing marijuana should be put to a vote and the revenue that would be gained could go toward investing in the state's education system.

"It isn't about getting high," Gallagher said.

The revenue that could be obtained from legalizing marijuana could be used to invest millions of dollars into the education system until S.C. has the best schools in the nation, she said.

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In 2010, Congress acted to reduce the disparity in mandatory minimum standards used to sentence criminals, particularly in regard to drug offenders. Last week, President Barack Obama announced that the Justice Department would take the next logical step - rescuing some of the thousands of inmates still serving time under the old, unfair sentencing rules.

The president intends to canvass the entire federal prison population - - now numbering about 216,000 - to find inmates who are languishing behind bars under the unjustly harsh sentencing laws established during the crack cocaine epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s. While the clemency program will not specifically target the roughly 7,000 inmates serving time for crack-related crimes, the guidelines for granting clemency would cover most of them.

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