More Than Medicine
More Than Medicine
Interview with John McCravey: The Hidden Risks of Medical Marijuana Legislation
South Carolina legislator and attorney John McCravey joins us with a bold assertion: the proposed medical marijuana bill is not just about healthcare—it's a stepping stone to recreational marijuana. Our conversation unpacks the extensive infrastructure the bill aims to implement, potentially at taxpayer expense. John raises critical concerns about the industry's billion-dollar motives and the potential risks to public health, particularly for children and teenagers. We tackle the alarming possibility that minors could gain access to potent THC products through marijuana cards and discuss the broader financial and societal implications of this legislation.
As we navigate the heated debate over marijuana legalization, the hidden influence of lobbyists comes to light, often overshadowing the safety concerns voiced by South Carolina's medical community, law enforcement, and religious groups. Personal stories surface, shedding light on adverse health effects like THC hyperemesis, anxiety, and depression, which often go unnoticed. This episode underscores the urgency of raising public awareness and highlights resources like KeepSC.org to help prevent legislation that could lead to broader legalization. Tune in for a compelling exploration of the future of marijuana legislation and its potential impact on our communities.
https://www.keepsc.org/
https://www.jacksonfamilyministry.com
https://bobslone.com/home/podcast-production/
Welcome to More Than Medicine, where Jesus is more than enough for the ills that plague our culture and our country. Hosted by author and physician, dr Robert Jackson, and his wife Carlotta and daughter Hannah Miller. So listen up, because the doctor is in.
Speaker 2:Welcome to More Than Medicine. I'm your host, Dr Robert Jackson, bringing to you biblical insights and stories from the country doctor's rusty, dusty scrapbook. Well, I'm privileged to have online today John McCravey. He's a representative in the South Carolina legislature from the Greenwood area. John, welcome to More Than Medicine.
Speaker 3:Well, thank you, Dr Jackson. It's always a pleasure to talk with you.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm delighted to have you Tell my listeners a little bit about yourself, the district you represent, a little bit about your family and your law practice, so they'll know a little bit about who you are.
Speaker 3:Well, dr Jackson, I'm an attorney in Greenwoodwood, south carolina. I went out on my own and started the practice that I have about 30 years ago and we dedicated it to the lord when we got started and we we've seen favor with the people and it's been very successful. I have about 40 employees now. My goodness, I teach a course at Lander University in business law and I ran for the legislature about eight years ago and was fortunate enough to be elected, and I do my best to answer to my constituents and the good Lord.
Speaker 2:I hear you Now you have a wife, and how many children?
Speaker 3:I have a wife, two grown children with five grandchildren now.
Speaker 2:I hear you. I hear you. What a blessing, what a blessing. All right, well, listen, I heard you speak just earlier this week about the whole issue of medical marijuana and some legislation that keeps popping up in the South Carolina legislature, about the whole issue of medical marijuana, which is an issue that's real touchy with me, and it's because of how marijuana affects my patients and, in fact, it touched my family. For about 10 years. One of my brothers was addicted to not just marijuana but other substances, but the marijuana was the gateway drug that got him addicted to much more potent substances, and so it is a real touchy subject with me, and so I'd like to ask you to speak about that. And why does this keep coming up in the South Carolina legislature?
Speaker 3:Well, dr Jackson, somebody said and I know it's been said if you want to get the answers to why something happens, follow the money. That's right, so the love of money is what is driving this bill that they call the medical marijuana bill, but it's actually recreational marijuana, part one.
Speaker 2:Yes, sir.
Speaker 3:If you look at the bill. Before I read this bill, I thought well, maybe it's just a bill to allow somebody who's dying of cancer to smoke marijuana, or something like that. This bill has nothing to do with that. First of all, this bill inserts the infrastructure for recreational marijuana. It allows, it doesn't allow it. It mandates the, the Department of Public Health, to certify 138 new cannabis dispensaries approximately three per county in South Carolina, 30 manufacturing centers that manufacture all the edibles and the vapes and all these things that go along with marijuana, 15 growing centers where you have the marijuana being produced, five testing laboratories, four transporter companies and a partridge in a pear tree. So we've got a terrible infrastructure that's trying to be inserted. And why? This is a billion-dollar business. This is not even in the millions, this is in the billions. And so in these other states that have seen these, these billionaire companies come in, man, they put it all in and once you get this disease, you never get rid of it. So these, these states have been unable to get rid of it. They'll tell you how bad it is, but they can't get rid of it. In our state, the way this, the way this bill reads now, is, the taxpayers will foot the bill for the regulation of this. It would create a whole new division at the South Carolina Department of Public Health. The taxpayer would spend estimated somewhere between $10 and $100 million just to regulate the new industry. Just to regulate the new industry.
Speaker 3:This bill is not about, like I said, it's not about people who are dying smoking marijuana. This is about marijuana doctors being allowed to give unlimited number of marijuana cards to people and all they have to say is well, I have persistent pain. So if they have persistent pain muscle spasms, severe muscle spasms, that kind of thing they will qualify. And what a lot of people don't know is this bill creates a marijuana board that has marijuana users on it and people in the industry on that board and they decide what other kind of things medical conditions could qualify for marijuana. So it's easy to get marijuana under this bill. And we know that cardholders in other states. They're addicts. The average cardholder with marijuana spends about $4,500 a year, which is enough for three doses a day. That's not somebody who occasionally uses marijuana for pain. This is somebody who's addicted to it. So we've got a big issue with this and there are a lot of other things wrong with it too.
Speaker 2:My goodness, I'm shocked to understand some of these things, especially the infrastructure that's designed to be constructed by this bill and the fact that the taxpayers have to pay for it. Who would have known that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, and so the other thing, another big thing about this bill is it's bad for our children. So this bill would allow marijuana cards for minors, okay. So if the minor can say he's got persistent pain or she does, their parents can go get a card for them. You know, we're looking at something that may result in school nurses handing out marijuana in school for the minors who want a dose of it. This bill allows for a lot of dangerous products that are banned in other states. There are different names for this stuff, but it's wax, shatter, butter, all these things. Some of these products are 95% to almost 100% THC, and so what's happened is, in a lot of these states that have this bill, we've got increased visits to the ER. We've had an explosion of people going to the ER with schizophrenia, with overdose of marijuana and all this kind of thing, because it's not regulated properly, and this bill will not regulate it properly. As a matter of fact, the advertising, the safety and the marketing and advertising you know they leave that up to the Department of Public Health, which you know what is that? I mean we need to know how our kids are going to be protected.
Speaker 3:There's, you know, for business, but this is bad for business. In South Carolina, you know, if you're a landlord, you can't discriminate against a renter who has a marijuana card, so you've got to let your renters be potheads. If they're potheads, that's too bad. You've got to let your renters be potheads. If they're potheads, that's too bad, you've got to rent to them anyway. If you're a business, you may not discriminate in hiring against a card-holding employee. Now, how in the world is that going to be? Now, the only exception to that is if you're a certified zero-tolerance business, which I believe is onerous for small business to do. So small businesses are not going to be able to even ask do you have a marijuana card? So this is really helping our workforce. You know here, in a time when South Carolina we have a problem with our workforce to begin with, we're going to let them all get high now and we're going going.
Speaker 3:Courage them to get high, because you can't be discriminated against. I mean, there's nothing good about this.
Speaker 2:Well, how's that going to affect DUIs? When a highway patrol pulls somebody over on the side of the road and they're stoned while driving If they've got a marijuana card, how's that going to affect the highway patrol's ability to?
Speaker 3:Well, that's a great question. And you know, in the wake of this American Idol guy who was 17 years old in Spartanburg. His testimony is he took one puff off a THC vape and, completely lost control, went up in a man's driveway, hit the man, drove him back in his garage and his daughter came back out to find her dad dead. That's what one toke off of these things can do. And so the problem is in this bill there's no DUI presumption. Like other states. Some of these marijuana states have 0.5 nanograms in your blood makes you DUI. This bill has no DUI presumption in it. And look, when you smoke this stuff and you mix it with alcohol, that's another problem. So it exacerbates the hallucinations and everything else. So you know it's just bad news.
Speaker 2:People don't realize that when Colorado legalized marijuana in their state the very next year, motor vehicle deaths went up 146 percent in their state and the sheriffs every sheriff in every county in Colorado went to the legislature and begged them to undo the damage that they did by legalizing marijuana. But the legislature wouldn't listen to them because the financial boon to the state by legalizing marijuana was such that they didn't care anymore, even though it was causing havoc on the highways in the state of Colorado and the same thing could happen in South Carolina.
Speaker 3:That's right. And you know, the governor, even the governor, the Democrat governor who was in when that law was passed said he now regrets that's. His one greatest regret is bringing marijuana into Colorado. So you know, we need to learn from that in South Carolina and learn that this stuff is not good. You know, we know. Another thing that's terrible for our kids is the CDC. Even if you believe, say let's look at the science, the CDC says number one it's not safe to use marijuana, especially children, because it's been linked to depression, suicide and schizophrenia in children. And so we know that the use by children increases when it's legalized. So you know, and even this vaping stuff, you know, you remember a few years ago they were, these kids were dying from using vapes and they couldn't figure out what the vapes were, and they finally figured out that they're vaping thc and marijuana right and so that was particularly dangerous for kids and so all these these effects.
Speaker 3:You know, I know this is anecdotal, but you know I talked to a pastor in the Midlands. The pastor's a very nice big church Baptist pastor and his daughter unfortunately got into smoking marijuana over at another person's house and he didn't know it. The person's father didn't know it but it turned into schizophrenia with her and he's still dealing with that and she's still dealing with that. So marijuana is not safe.
Speaker 2:No, it's not safe.
Speaker 3:If I don't get anything else out of this podcast. I want people to understand smoking marijuana is not safe. Vaping marijuana is not safe. Vaping marijuana is not safe.
Speaker 2:I've got plenty of adolescents that have issues with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia and it's not in their family anywhere. And when you dig down deep you find out that the teenagers have been smoking marijuana and that's the connection and that's where it's coming from and it's epidemic amongst teenagers and as many as 30% of teenagers who smoke marijuana routinely have issues with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia and people don't understand that. They think it's just something fun to do, like they did back in the 70s. But the marijuana of today is 10 times more potent than the marijuana that was available to the hippies back in the 70s and it's not safe for teenagers with their undeveloped neurologic systems to be smoking marijuana, to be smoking marijuana. It's so much more potent and the risk of developing bipolar disorder or schizophrenia amongst teenagers is about 30% and it's just unbelievably unsafe for teenagers.
Speaker 3:You're exactly right and you know, like you said earlier, once it comes into your state it sounds like medical marijuana. It's really not. You know, I had a lobbyist come to my office in the block building and he showed up and he said I want to talk to you, representative McCravey, about medical marijuana. And I said well, wait a minute, do you really believe, or you really want to just talk about medical and not recreational? Oh, no, we're not talking about recreational, I just want to talk to you about medical marijuana. And I said, well, who do you work for? And I Googled it and he worked for a nonprofit that their sole mission was to make sure that we get recreational marijuana in every state of the union. Yeah, yeah, and I kicked him out of my office because he lied to me. You know, yeah, and so also, when this bill, it made it to the South Carolina House floor one time, but it died a quick death because of a procedural motion, a constitutional motion.
Speaker 3:But when it made it that one time people were getting messages. I've got an intercepted message. I got from lobbyists out in the lobby that were texting into the House of Representatives and texting some of the representatives and they said in that text to the effect of make sure you don't mention anything about recreational, Make sure you only talk about the medical benefits of marijuana. So that's what it's really all about. It's about recreational. They try to hide it. This is the way they get it started. You saw in Florida they got into medical and within less than two years they were already trying to put the recreational on the ballot. And if they had gotten it? We have different laws in South Carolina, but they got more than 50% of the vote because they spent. The medical marijuana industry spent $164 million advertising and promoting that one initiative on the ballot that would have put recreational in. They'll still get it in in florida sooner or later, because they never should allow the medical marijuana to get in yeah, I understand that.
Speaker 2:I understand that. I'll tell you another anecdote. I had a patient who came to see me, uh, for uncontrolled vomiting, and he came multiple times and you know I thought he had cancer or something terrible. He was 50 years old and he lost 30 pounds and he was throwing up. And he had been in the emergency room multiple times and he'd had a very thorough evaluation, you know, for ruling out diabetes, ruling out cancer, and this had been going on for two years. And so one ER doctor had said to him I think your marijuana smoking is causing you to throw up constantly. In fact there is a THC hyperemesis diagnosis. But he had just dismissed the doctor the ER doctor because he thought that he'd never heard of such a thing and he thought that was just the ER doctor trying to make him quit smoking marijuana. Well, he'd had everything ruled out diabetes, cancer, all manner of other potential diagnoses that can cause people to throw up constantly.
Speaker 2:So he came to my office and I went over his entire chart, I went over all of his evaluation and I looked at him and I said do you still smoke marijuana every day? He said, doc, I've smoked marijuana every day since I was 20 years old and he said it's never bothered me. And I said well, I hate to tell you this, but I think it's been bothering you for the last two years. And he said the ER doctor said that to me and I just thought he was trying to get me to quit smoking pot. And I said no, there is a legitimate diagnosis called THC hyperemesis and I'm concerned that could be your problem. Well, I was his family doctor, not a stranger to him, and he looked at me like a calf looking at a new gate, cocked his head to one side and he said Doc, are you for real? I said, yeah, I'm afraid that's your problem. And he said I've spent thousands of dollars trying to evaluate this problem and I've lost 30 pounds and I feel like I'm going to die.
Speaker 2:And I said well, can you quit smoking marijuana? And he said you watch, I'll quit over the next two weeks. So he tapered down off of it, quit in two weeks and his vomiting quit. I mean, it just completely stopped. And that man's life had been completely ruined for two years and he had no idea that the marijuana was the culprit. Now that is a legitimate diagnosis and people don't realize how much marijuana can actually ruin a person's life. But I have patients who come in who have tachycardia. Their heart beats excessively fast or irregular. I have people who come in who are having panic attacks who are depressed and can't figure out why they're depressed.
Speaker 2:But if nobody asks them about their marijuana use, they'll never make the connection. And there are all manner of issues that people have with marijuana that they just don't make the connection. They don't realize that their regular marijuana use is affecting their anxiety, their depression, their weight loss or other issues. But it's not a safe drug, it's not a safe, natural thing to be using and in fact it's a Schedule I drug like LSD, and according to the DEA, it has no safe medical usage. And so you know, I'm very concerned that our legislature doesn't understand these things and that they would try to push medical marijuana into our state when of course, as you say, it's just the camel's nose under the tent in an attempt to push recreational marijuana down the road.
Speaker 3:That's right and you know. Just to sum this up, there are a lot of people who have seen through this. You know they spread around a lot. Sum this up there are a lot of people who have seen through this. You know they spread around a lot of money. They've got a lot of lobbyists, they've got a lot of campaign contributions and they've got an unlimited amount of money, but the South Carolina Medical Association opposes this because the doctors understand that this is not good for people. All the law enforcement, of course, are against it because they know what's going to happen. Palmetto Family, the Baptist Convention, the Catholic Diocese are all against it. We've got grassroots organizations all over, but if we don't get the word out, they're liable to get this through. I want to thank you, dr Jackson, for caring about this issue. It's an issue that I really didn't care about before 2021.
Speaker 3:I didn't know about it. I'd heard about it but it wasn't a big deal to me. But once I read that bill, it changed everything and I heard Billy Garrett making these arguments in the Senate against it. Senator Garrett, he stood up against it in the Senate, Thank the Lord. He convinced me to look into it and when I did, I've never been the same. I'm passionately against it now. So I want to thank you for getting the word out.
Speaker 2:Well, I want to, and I appreciate the presentation that you made earlier this week. It was a very good presentation and well thought out. I'd like to refer my listeners to KeepSC. org. Keepsc. org. It's a website that's just full of documentation from lots of medical sites and lots of newspaper articles and medical journals that I think you will find very useful in doing research and answering questions about marijuana, and I think it would be a useful website for you to take advantage of. The other thing I want to encourage my listeners to do is you need to call your representative and your senators about this issue. You need to let them know where you stand on the issue and tell them to stay away from any medical marijuana bills. There's no justification for them, and they just need to know where you stand on the issue. I'll give you the last word, representative McCravey, before we wrap it up.
Speaker 3:Well, that was a very good thought right there at the end, because many Republicans Republican senators voted for this bill the last time it went through, and our state Senate does not need to be supporting this bill over and over again. They passed it out at least twice and you've got senators in conservative areas that have been supporting this bill. So you know, people are surprised when they find out who voted for this, and so I think if the people get active, they can make a difference on this issue.
Speaker 2:Yep. So don't just lay down and nod your head and say somebody needs to do something. That somebody is you, and if you're one of my listeners, I encourage you to call your senator, call your legislator, your representative, and let them know that you're opposed to any medical marijuana bill. I don't know that any has been filed already. Has any been filed yet?
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, they filed the same bill again in the Senate, Senator Davis did. They filed one of the Democrats filed one in the House and it has a less chance of going because a Democrat filed it. But the Republican who files it in the Senate always has a good chance of getting his bill out because he's a Republican.
Speaker 2:I got you.
Speaker 3:So that's where we need to fight them. We need to fight them in the Republican realm because the Democrats most of the Democrats that I know of are all for the bill and most of the opposition is always Republican, I understand. So I mean, I know that that's not necessarily a party thing, but it just seems that way. So the Republicans that support this is the way we're going to stop it and they've got to be opposed on this issue.
Speaker 2:All right. Well, you're listening to More Than Medicine. I'm your host, Dr Robert Jackson. My guest today is John McCravey, legislator from Greenwood, South Carolina. John, I really appreciate your expertise and all the information you've shared, and I hope you'll come back and be on More Than Medicine another time.
Speaker 3:We'll be glad to do it any time, Dr Jackson. Thank you.
Speaker 2:All right. Thank you, sir. We'll be back again next week. In between now and then, may the Lord bless you real good.
Dr. Robert Jackson:Thank you for listening to this edition of More Than Medicine. For more information about the Jackson Family Ministry, dr Jackson's books, or to schedule a speaking engagement, go to their Facebook page, instagram or their webpage at jacksonfamilyministrycom. This podcast is produced by Bob Slone Audio Production at bobslonedotcom.
