The SC Cannabis Reform Coalition — Sen. Davis, Jill Swing, MPP, Industry Allies

Last verified: May 2026

Sen. Tom Davis — The 12-Year Senate Anchor

Sen. Tom Davis (R-Beaufort), an attorney from Beaufort and chair of the Senate Labor, Commerce and Industry (LCI) Committee, has been the principal sponsor of medical-cannabis legislation in the SC Senate since 2014. Davis has methodically reworked the Compassionate Care Act across sessions to address law-enforcement objections: removing smokable flower; banning home cultivation; requiring pharmacist consultation at "therapeutic cannabis pharmacies"; and (in the 2024 redraft) eliminating tax language that triggered the 2022 origination-clause challenge. See Tom Davis campaign page.

The Senate has passed Davis’s bill twice: 28-15 on Feb. 9-10, 2022 (S.150, the first chamber passage in SC history) and 24-19 on Feb. 14, 2024 (S.423, with the second-reading vote 26-17 on Feb. 13). Both bills died in the House — S.150 on the May 4, 2022 origination-clause challenge by Rep. McCravy; S.423 in the House 3M Committee under chair Rep. Sylleste Davis (no relation). Sen. Davis has publicly stated 2026 "will be the year"; as of May 5, 2026, S.53 has not received a hearing.

Senate Co-Sponsors of S.53

• Sen. Stephen Goldfinch (R-Murrells Inlet) — Coastal Lowcountry/Grand Strand Republican; consistent co-sponsor.
• Sen. Russell Sutton (R-Williamsburg) — Pee Dee/Eastern SC Republican; co-sponsor on S.53.

Past co-sponsors of earlier versions included Sens. Brad Hutto (D-Orangeburg), Larry Grooms (R-Bonneau), Marlon Kimpson (D-Charleston), Gerald Malloy (D-Hartsville), Mia McLeod (D-Columbia), Tom Corbin (R-Travelers Rest), Daniel Verdin III (R-Laurens) (Senate Medical Affairs Committee chair), Mike Fanning (D-Great Falls), Penry Gustafson (R-Camden), Katrina Shealy (R-Lexington), and Sandy Senn (R-Charleston). Former Sen. Glenn Reese (D-Boiling Springs), an early co-sponsor, retired in 2020.

Jill Swing & the SC Compassionate Care Alliance

Jill Swing, mother of a child with severe epilepsy, founded the South Carolina Compassionate Care Alliance in the wake of the 2014 Julian’s Law campaign. The Alliance has provided the patient-advocacy backbone for every Compassionate Care Act session: in-State-House testimony, family-advocate organizing, and media engagement. Swing’s daughter Mary Louise — whose seizure disorder was the impetus for the family’s involvement in cannabis advocacy — has become a recognizable face for SC reform. See Raines & Swing page.

Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) — Kevin Caldwell

The Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), the principal national medical-cannabis advocacy organization, is represented in SC by Senior Policy Analyst Kevin Caldwell. MPP provides legislative-tracking, comparative-state-policy analysis, and lobbying support to Sen. Davis’s office and to the SC Compassionate Care Alliance. MPP’s state-by-state policy library has been a frequent reference in SC committee testimony.

SC Cannabis Coalition

The South Carolina Cannabis Coalition is a broader reform-advocacy group that organized a major State House rally on January 17, 2024, drawing several hundred attendees. The Coalition’s footprint includes patient advocates, veteran-advocacy participants, hemp-industry allies, and harm-reduction professionals. Unlike the narrowly focused Compassionate Care Alliance, the Cannabis Coalition has broader policy goals encompassing decriminalization and adult-use considerations alongside medical cannabis.

SC Pharmacy Association — Brian Clark

The South Carolina Pharmacy Association, represented by Brian Clark, has been an organized supporter of the pharmacist-dispensing model that distinguishes Sen. Davis’s "most conservative medical cannabis program in the country" framework. Clark has testified in committee:

"That pharmacist is going to take an oath. I mean, we’re not just going to dispense this when it’s not warranted, you know, so there’s checks and balances in place when you have medical providers involved."

The pharmacist-consultation requirement — modeled loosely on Utah’s — gives the Pharmacy Association a stake in the program structure that does not exist in most other states’ reform coalitions. See what S.53 would do page.

SC Healthy Alternatives Association — Hemp Industry

The SC Healthy Alternatives Association represents the hemp-derived intoxicant industry in SC. The Association lobbied throughout the 2025-26 session for the regulate-not-ban approach to consumable hemp products (H.3924 / H.3935) and against the Newton total-ban approach (H.4758 / H.4759). Industry argument: hemp businesses employ thousands of South Carolinians; consumer demand is real and durable; a total ban will simply move the market to gray-market online retailers shipping in from out of state; the responsible path is age verification, packaging, dosing caps, and safety testing. See 2025-26 hemp bills page.

ACLU of South Carolina

The ACLU of South Carolina has documented racial-disparity enforcement and called for legalization-with-equity. The 2020 ACLU report A Tale of Two Countries: Racially Targeted Arrests in the Era of Marijuana Reform — the source of the headline finding that SC had the second-highest marijuana possession arrest rate in the nation in 2018 — was a national report; ACLU SC has consistently amplified the SC-specific findings in legislative testimony and media engagement. Then-Executive Director Frank Knaack said: "Our marijuana laws are justified using code words like ‘law and order’ and ‘tough on crime’ — code words long used to maintain a racist system that stops, arrests, and convicts Black people at staggering rates compared to white people." See ACLU disparity page.

Drug Policy Reform Coalition of SC and Allied Organizations

Other reform-aligned organizations include:

• Drug Policy Reform Coalition of South Carolina — broader harm-reduction advocacy.
• South Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition — Greenville-based; southcarolinahrc.org.
• SC NORML — Disestablished in 2023 after founder Scott Weldon stepped down. Weldon continues advocacy under the "South Carolina Cannabis Advocates" banner.
• Veteran-advocacy participants — SC has a substantial veteran population (federal-installation density is among the highest in the country, including Joint Base Charleston, Fort Jackson, Shaw AFB, MCAS Beaufort, MCRD Parris Island), and veteran voices have been a recurring presence in Compassionate Care Act committee hearings.
• SC Pharmacists Association — supportive of the program structure (above).

Why the Reform Coalition Has Failed (So Far)

Despite consistent statewide polling showing 76% support for medical cannabis (Winthrop April 2023, including 80% Democrats and 72% Republicans), the reform coalition has not produced a Compassionate Care Act enactment in a dozen sessions. Structural reasons:

• No citizen ballot initiative. SC is one of 24 states without statewide citizen-initiated ballot measures. Voter sentiment cannot bypass the General Assembly. See no citizen initiative page.
• Senate-House asymmetry. The Senate has been narrowly willing twice; the House has not. See Senate-House asymmetry page.
• Opposition coalition discipline. SLED, SCSA, AG, House Family Caucus, and Palmetto Family Council have held the line. See opposition coalition page.
• The Operation Ganjapreneur reframing. AG Wilson’s December 2025 hemp prosecution gave the opposition a fresh "industry invades SC" frame that complicates Sen. Davis’s argument for a regulated medical pathway.

What 2027 May Bring

If S.53 fails to enact in the 2025-26 session (as expected, given that as of May 5, 2026 it has not received a hearing), the next realistic enactment window is 2027 — the first session of the new gubernatorial term. Reform coalition strategy in 2026-27 will likely focus on (a) holding Senate support; (b) targeted House district outreach; (c) federal Schedule III rescheduling pressure; and (d) candidate questionnaires in the 2026 House and gubernatorial races. See McMaster + 2026 race page.