COLUMBIA — When Sam Fogle returned from Iraq after getting hit by a roadside bomb, he suffered from severe brain injuries and severe post-traumatic stress disorder.
The medication he was prescribed came with crippling side effects, but medical marijuana offered the ability to relieve him of his chronic pain.
He said it could do the same for many veterans like him.
“I love my state,” Fogle testified Thursday about the Statehouse’s medical marijuana effort. “I don’t want to move out of my state to get the choices others have.”
Then there’s Mark Keel, the chief of South Carolina’s Law Enforcement Division.
A longtime opponent of legalizing medical marijuana, Keel said he continues to believe that legalizing medical marijuana could lead to a spike in traffic fatalities and other dangerous outcomes, and he said S.C. should maintain its historic independent streak by declining to follow dozens of other states that have legalized medicinal use of the drug.
“South Carolina doesn’t have to be like the other 33 states that’s decided to go down that road and conduct social experiments on their citizens,” Keel said. “If you vote yes for this bill… be prepared to…
