Patients plead with SC legislators to legalize marijuana, but efforts remain blocked

A grandmother from Hilton Head Island pleaded with legislators Wednesday to let her ease her suffering legally.

But bipartisan efforts to allow South Carolinians to use marijuana as medicine continue to be blocked by opposition from law enforcement.    

Margaret Richardson said she lives in fear of the excruciating jolts of pain that come with trigeminal neuralgia, which affects the nerves in her face. They can be triggered by something as mundane as brushing her teeth or putting on makeup.    

“Yesterday, I ran out of my supply of medical cannabis. None of us ever know where we will get it. I don’t know what I’ll do tomorrow, I don’t know when I will get any again,” Richardson said at a news conference at the Statehouse, her voice wavering.

“I don’t have a source because I’m not allowed to go to a doctor in my state who can give me a prescription for my specific need so I can be treated. Because it’s illegal, we are forced to creep around like criminals,” she said. [Read more at The Post and Courier]