Hemp THC Stays Legal in South Carolina as Regulation Bill Dies

Intoxicating hemp products will stay on South Carolina shelves — available to buyers of any age, with no potency limit and no testing standard — after state lawmakers failed to agree on how to regulate them before adjourning. The collapse leaves one of the few states where marijuana is still illegal without any rules governing the THC-infused gummies and drinks already sold at its gas stations, vape shops, and grocery stores.

The bill to regulate hemp-derived consumables died in the state House on June 25, 2026, when an unusual alliance of hemp-industry supporters and total-ban advocates combined to vote it down. The Senate had passed the compromise 27-11 hours earlier the same day; House members then rejected it 69-28. The opposition cut across party lines: the “no” votes included 41 Republicans and all 28 Democrats present.

An unlikely coalition sinks the compromise

The defeated measure was the product of months of negotiation between the two chambers, which have split over hemp-derived THC across two legislative sessions. It would have set a 21-and-older age limit, capped THC at 10 milligrams per serving for gummies and beverages, and routed most sales through liquor stores. Other retailers could have applied for a license to sell 12-ounce beverages containing up to 5 milligrams of THC, kept behind the counter. Restaurants would have been barred from selling the products at all, and negotiators added lab-testing and labeling requirements. To reach a deal, the two chambers stripped out penalties for driving under the influence of the products and moved them into a separate DUI bill, which also failed.

For the industry’s defenders, the licensing and location rules went too far. Rep. Greg Ford, R-Summerville, one of the hemp sector’s leading House allies, said the plan would hand the market to liquor retailers and shutter small operators. “We’re actually taking that from the stores that are selling it now and we’re giving it to another industry, which is called the liquor industry. That, in my opinion, is a government overreach,” he said. Because the bill imposed beer-and-wine-style limits — barring shops within several hundred feet of a church, school, or playground — Ford said some operators would lose most of their storefronts. Rep. Gil Gatch, R-Summerville, estimated roughly 1,800 small businesses employing 3,500 people could have been affected.

At the other end, hardline opponents wanted a full prohibition and refused to treat regulation as a substitute. Rep. John McCravy, R-Greenwood, warned that South Carolina would become a dumping ground for the drinks and argued the bill would legalize a dangerous product. Those votes joined the industry bloc to bury the compromise.

Why a ban supporter helped kill a half-measure

The result frustrated lawmakers at both poles. Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, an Edgefield Republican who said he would have preferred an outright ban, told reporters he was willing to let the problem build rather than settle for a narrow fix. “If the only thing that we can do is to prohibit sales to under 21, I would rather the pressure grow, and let’s see if we can address it more comprehensively later,” Massey said after the vote.

That calculation — rejecting a modest bill to preserve leverage for a tougher one — is what left the state with no framework at all. House Judiciary Chairman Weston Newton, a Bluffton Republican who sat on the negotiating committee, had warned colleagues that killing the bill meant the products would stay available to buyers of every age. He read from a letter by State Law Enforcement Division Chief Mark Keel, who told lawmakers that without regulation and dedicated resources, statewide enforcement of intoxicating THC products is effectively impossible and poses a public-safety risk, especially to young people.

What it means, and the federal wildcard

For now, the status quo holds. South Carolina has no medical or adult-use marijuana program, so hemp-derived THC — effectively legalized nationwide by the 2018 federal Farm Bill — remains the only legal path to an intoxicating cannabis product in the state. Without the bill, there is no state age limit, no potency ceiling, and no testing or labeling standard for those products. The same Republican divide has stalled even narrower cannabis questions in South Carolina, including the debate over medical marijuana that split the party’s recent attorney general primary. The state is also not alone in struggling to corral the products. Hemp companies are currently fighting Ohio’s move to reclassify them as marijuana.

The bigger variable now sits in Washington. South Carolina’s debate could be overtaken by federal rules that would sharply cut the amount of THC allowed in hemp products, which are slated to take effect in November 2026 unless Congress intervenes. If those limits stand, many of the products lawmakers spent two sessions fighting over could become illegal regardless of what the state does, a prospect some House members cited as a reason to hold off.

Lawmakers remain in a special session over the budget and redistricting and could technically return to hemp before the November elections. But the scale of the House opposition signaled little appetite to revisit it this year. Gatch said the General Assembly would take the issue back up the right way once the federal guidance lands.