Rally at S.C. State House calls for wider marijuana reform
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) - The second annual South Carolina Cannabis ers United Rally happened Wednesday at the State House.
Sen. Deon Tedder, D - Charleston, recently filed Senate Bill 892. This bill would ban law enforcement officers from searching a vehicle for probable cause if they smelled marijuana during a traffic stop.
Tedder says he plans to push this bill along in hopes to create a new law for the state.
“In my experience as an attorney I’ve seen often times an officer will use the language that they smell an odor of marijuana simply to search the car and go into a fishing expedition. There are lot of times where we aren’t required to document it, but they don’t find any marijuana in fact sometimes they find nothing and sometimes they find other things but to use that alone I think is a constitutional violation of the Fourth Amendment.”
MORE FROM NEWS 12:
- S.C. House OKs ban on gender-affirming care for minors
- S.C. Democrats push summer food program for students
- South Carolina lawmakers look at changes in House rules
Many ers who attended the rally at the State House hope to a much broader legalization of marijuana, they hope this bill is another step forward for making marijuana both recreationally and medically legal in the state.
Among the ers in attendance is a Vietnam veteran who has seen firsthand the impact marijuana has had for his health.
“I had to kill a 6-year-old kid in Vietnam, I had no choice. When those things come along, I grab a t, smoke it and I get it off my mind,” said veteran Tim Godwin.
“I’m one of thousands of guys in this country who had to face that same problem,” he said. “They had to kill kids and women they didn’t want to, but it was a war, and the older generation didn’t know how to accept and understand that. But for me I didn’t find a friend in a bottle, I found it in a t”.
S.C. Cannabis Coalitions Executive Director Bob Chapman said he is hopeful Tedder’s bill will lead to the overall legalization of marijuana in the state.
“There’s a lot of people that can use it, they should not have to go out of state to solve their medical problems,” Chapman said.
Sen. Tedder says he believes his recently filed bill could be the springboard to achieving that goal.
“I really want to push that bill and I love on it, it’s currently in committee,” Tedder said. “I’m going to push for a subcommittee hearing and hopefully get a debate on this.”
Copyright 2024 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.
