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by WILL FOLKS
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A bid to regulate so-called “cannabis consumables” in South Carolina imploded on the floor of the state’s Senate this week – putting the future of this rapidly expanding industry in limbo and dealing yet another blow to the leadership of the chamber’s top Republican, Shane Massey.
Massey – who favors a total ban on cannabis consumables in the Palmetto State – attempted to cut a deal with his fellow Republican hardliners this week. That deal would have amended a House bill (H. 3924) to more tightly limit the sale of these products. Along with wheeling-and-dealing S.C. senator Michael Johnson, who is being touted as Massey’s eventual replacement as majority leader, Massey sought to push through a “compromise” that would have regulated the potency of these products, limited their sale to liquor stores and restricted their availability to adults over the age of 21 years.
This deal was reportedly struck during a GOP caucus dinner on Wednesday evening (March 18, 2026).
“Johnson and Massey cut a deal with the hardliners, shut out the Democrats and tried to ram a terrible amendment down our throats,” one senator who spoke with FITSNews on condition of anonymity said.
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What happened? Just like last year’s debate on tort reform, Massey got rolled.
The Senate narrowly approved the controversial amendment, but then refused to pass the bill.
“Johnson and Massey got pantsed,” one lobbyist tracking the deliberations told us.
To recap: South Carolina has been struggling for the past two years to regulate psychoactive cannabinoids present in food and drinks sold at retail establishments across the state (often with tragically unintended consequences). Since the passage of the 2018 farm bill at the federal level, a multitude of hemp-based products have been legal across the country – creating a booming industry that has resisted regulation and placed further strain on already struggling beer and liquor retailers.
The adult beverage industry has fought back, seeking to either ban the sale of these competing products altogether – or force them to be sold at liquor stores under the state’s current regulatory framework for intoxicating libations.
Meanwhile, law enforcement – especially the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) – has stepped up its efforts to crack down on these cannabis consumables in the Palmetto State.
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RELATED | S.C. VAPE SHOP STING
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“These products are incredibly dangerous,” chief Mark Keel of the S.C. State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) said during a recent legislative hearing on this issue. “These users have no idea what they are ingesting.”
Senators had hoped to land on a deal that would have permitted cannabis consumables to be sold in gummy and beverage form in state-alone hemp stores only. These facilities would not be allowed to operate within 1,000 feet of schools or churches, and would have been restricted from tobacco and/or alcohol sales.
When Massey and Johnson attempted to pass the bill with their hardline amendment, though, a shocking outcome ensued. By a vote of 25–15, the bill was defeated.
Prior to the pivotal vote, two Democrat senators – Russell Ott and Ed Sutton – turned the debate on its ear, accusing the GOP of picking winners and losers in the retail marketplace and limiting the legal rights of adult consumers.
“Democrats took the free market/libertarian approach,” one State House observer told us.
Specifically, Democrats argued that the hardline “compromise” was anathema to the free market – and would shut down dozens of standalone hemp stores which have been operating in good faith.
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The Senate is entering into the second week of debate on the regulation of hemp-based THC drinks and gummies. Federal provisions mean these products can be (and are being) legally sold here in SC. We have to pass a strong bill that sets a 21+ age verification requirement, limits… pic.twitter.com/PSMu8FZYH6
— Russell Ott (@SenRussellOtt) March 18, 2026
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“Democrats closed ranks and said you’re not taking away rights from adults and picking winners and losers with a heavy hand,” one senator who spoke with us on condition of anonymity said.
Joining these Democrats were many of the GOP hardliners whose support Massey and Johnson were hoping to secure – including senators Lee Bright, Richard Cash and Mike Reichenbach, who is currently the lieutenant gubernatorial nominee of S.C. attorney general Alan Wilson (whose office, incidentally, is prosecuting many of the new vape shop cases).
Sources close to Massey and Johnson made it clear there would be an attempt to resurrect the bill this week, but its future remains very much in doubt considering Democrats will not support an overly restrictive bill and the far right will not budge on its desire for a total ban of these products.
“Nothing will pass now in South Carolina this year and we will continue to be in the same boat we are now,” a source following the debate told us. “Some say all these products are legal, some say none of them are, and some say some are some aren’t depends on the product. A damn mess.”
Meanwhile, Massey continues to demonstrate a galling inability to “read the room” when it comes to advancing important legislation through the Senate.
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UPDATE |
Second compromise passed… our full report.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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9 comments
It is hell when I agree with the Democrats. We traded video poker for the “SC Education” Lottery. So then we got scratch offs, which the morality police call the crack of gambling, because the state could sell the lottery as long as it attached the word education to it. Then the Lottery Commission appointments became a political plum for politicians and bureaucrats seeking high salaries with little real oversight. The Lottery Commission then functions as its own entity with its own rules. Hemp products opened the door to smaller entrepreneurs with no evil intent other than to participate in a free market. The SC Republican Party, especially its leadership, has anointed itself as the arbiter of morals for the people. The Retirement System has an unfunded liability, roads are deteriorating, our tax structure needs a total overhaul, the judiciary has its problems, but the Republicans whistle past the graveyard and look for their morals issue. Lord help us.
For me, even smoking cigarettes is a an issue of morality: harming your and others’ lungs while burning money and misusing the land on which tobacco is grown instead of growing food.
But those who pretend that marijuana and all pot products are pure medicinal benefits with little side effect are wrong, very wrong.
I don’t want to be driving on a highway on which the other drivers are figuratively high.
Science and medicine should not be partisan issues disguised as morality issues.
Its funny that it easier to pass a 40 page law that does almost nothing than explain federal pre-emption to the average south carolinian. The federal farm bill comprehensively regulates it so the states cannot further restrict or contradict the federal rules. We can all buy thc forever now. Suck it, Mark Keel.
FITS, it is unseemly and suspicious of you to gloat every time Shane Massey fails in a battle even is he ultimately wins the was.
You should update this story with the compromised reached.
Libertarianism, which you claim but are not a purist about, does NOT mean open access to pot even by minors.
(corrected for typos)
FITS, it is unseemly and suspicious of you to gloat every time Shane Massey fails in a battle even if he ultimately wins the war.
You should update this story with the compromise reached.
Libertarianism, which you claim but are not a purist about, does NOT mean open access to pot even by minors.
(corrected for typos)
FITS, it is unseemly and suspicious of you to gloat every time Shane Massey fails in a battle even if he ultimately wins the war.
You should update this story with the compromise reached.
Libertarianism, which you claim but are not a purist about, does NOT mean open access to pot even by minors.
Please note the corrected typos:
FITS, it is unseemly and suspicious of you to gloat every time Shane Massey fails in a battle even if he ultimately wins the war.
You should update this story with the compromise reached.
Libertarianism, which you claim but are not a purist about, does NOT mean open access to pot even by minors.
FITS, if it is true that both Dylan Nolan and Andy Fancher abruptly quit on you, after Callie Lyons went to the Malicious Mandy Matney side, who had few years ago bolted from you and taken her “work wife” Liz Farrell with her, too, I have some comments and ideas for you.
First, be grateful you still have Jenn Wood and Erin Parrot [whose name sounded like “heir apparent” when you said it in your (now-discontinued?) week/month/year-in-review. They are both very talented; and I don’t think Jenn Wood plans to relocate again, at least not before her daughter graduates Clemson.
Next, start training your older kids to help in your mom-and-pop operation. That is how the Murdock (that is Murdock of Fox News, etc. not Murdaugh of you-know-what) empire started and grew.
Third, shift to topics with a wider-base interest. You may have a 0.01% of your subscribers interested in the partisan/racist red meat (beware alpha-gal) you throw at them; but probably a majority of the other 99.99% are not uninterested in affordability of insurance (health and otherwise), gasoline, AND rent.
Yes, rent.
Have you ever investigated how mega malevolent (supercilious for “big bad”) companies oligopolize the market and conspire to raise the rent while depressing the quality of rental housing?
Yes! Affordability.
Perhaps your former employees who went to greener gardens (meaning more stuffed with green dollars) no longer worry about affordability; but perhaps your readers do.
“The rent is darn high!”
A previously repeat candidate for NYC mayor could not ride that slogan to victory; but a younger, fresher face did on a repackaged version.
Perhaps Rom Reddy or Jermaine Johnson can; and perhaps YOU can return to your Mark Sanford days with a different governor.
Just early morning thoughts as Easter is the season for new life.
I open parentheses/brackets but forget to close them.
Also, it should be “99.99% are more uninterested,” not “99.99% are not uninterested”; what can I say?
Early morning blurriness of eyesight, but not of vision