South Carolina § 44-53-630 - Establishment of therapeutic research program; regulations; limits as to patient eligibility.

§ 44-53-630. Establishment of therapeutic research program; regulations; limits as to patient eligibility.

(A) There is established in the Department of Health and Environmental Control a controlled substances therapeutic research program. The program shall be administered by the director. The program shall distribute to cancer chemotherapy and radiology patients and to glaucoma patients who are certified pursuant to this article marijuana under the terms and conditions of this article for the purpose of alleviating the patient's discomfort, nausea and other painful side effects of their disease or chemotherapy treatments. The department shall promulgate regulations necessary for the proper administration of this article and in such promulgation, the department shall take into consideration those pertinent regulations promulgated by the Drug Enforcement Agency, U. S. Department of Justice; Food and Drug Administration; the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and the National Institutes of Health.

(B) Except as provided in subsection (c) of Section 44-53-640, the controlled substances therapeutic research program shall be limited to cancer chemotherapy and radiology patients and glaucoma patients, who are certified to the patient qualification review advisory board by a practitioner as being involved in a life-threatening or sense-threatening situation and who are not responding to conventional controlled substances or where the conventional controlled substances administered have proven to be effective but where the patient has incurred severe side effects.

HISTORY: 1980 Act No. 323, SECTION 4; 1993 Act No. 181, SECTION 1111.