Staff reports | Former U.S. Rep. and current Democratic gubernatorial candidate Joe Cunningham of Charleston this week pushed for recreational and medicinal legalization of marijuana at the state level.
“It’s time for elected officials to admit that what we are doing has not been working although there are career politicians who would rather live in the past,” the 39-year-old Cunningham said in a veiled reference to GOP Gov. Henry McMaster, 74.
Cunningham went on to say marijuana legalization is no longer a matter of looking to the future, but of catching up to the present. Marijuana is fully legal in 18 states, including Virginia. And 37 states, including Alabama and Mississippi, have legalized or voted in favor of medicinal marijuana.
Cunningham leaned heavily on the benefits of medical marijuana use for those with chronic illness, specifically veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, in his advocacy for cannabis. But he also said tax revenue from marijuana sales could bolster the state’s ability to fund infrastructure and education.
“We owe this to our men and women who have served our country; we owe it to those who suffer through chronic illnesses who just want relief from their pain,” he said. “We owe it to communities of color who have been unfairly impacted by these archaic laws.”
His plan calls for the complete expungement of criminal records for those who were arrested and charged with possession of marijuana in South Carolina. However, marijuana legislation often raises red flags for law enforcement, who have been fighting the war on drugs for decades now.
“But let’s be clear,” said former U.S. attorney for South Carolina Bill Nettles, “Their title is law enforcement, not the whole promulgation. What we ought to be doing is asking law enforcement to get in their lane. It is a misnomer that law enforcement is lockstep behind making cannabis illegal.”
Cunningham said he is confident in his ability to work with conservative lawmakers in the statehouse to bring his plan into fruition, citing his two bills passed through a divided Congress and by a Republican president during his term in Washington D.C. And, he said, he has the numbers behind him.
“The people are no longer divided on this issue, it’s the politicians that haven’t come around,” he said.
Skyler Baldwin of the Charleston City Paper, a sister publication, first reported on this story here.
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