Did you know that the cultivation of hemp, the type of cannabis used to make CBD oil, dates back to 1733 in South Carolina? An act was passed in the then British colony to promote the growth of hemp for its “useful manufacture to his Majesty’s Royal Navy.” At the time hemp was the main crop used to produce fibers for rope and cloth.

Everything seemed to be going along just fine for more than 200 years when in 1937 the US federal government declared the cultivation of cannabis to be illegal in the US. The prohibition effort was spearheaded by influential politicians with ties to the lumber industry. These buzz killers saw an opportunity to crush their competition by lumping hemp together with marijuana. Both lumber and hemp were being used to make products such as paper and building materials.

It would be another eight decades before South Carolina lawmakers would get around to ending the prohibition of hemp. The legislation was drafted to take advantage of a farm bill signed by President Obama in 2014 that permitted states to develop hemp pilot programs. The new legislation, not passed until 2017, called for the licensing of up to 20 hemp farmers to grow up to 20 acres each. Those limits were increased in 2018 to 50 hemp grower licenses with 50 acres each.

However, the question remained as to whether or not CBD oil was legal in South Carolina because it was still, technically, illegal at the federal level. But there was one segment of the citizenry that was permitted to possess CBD oil.

A few years earlier, in 2014, Senate Bill 1035, aka “Julian’s Law,” was passed. The law permitted the use of CBD oil to treat children with severe epilepsy as long as the treatment was recommended by a physician. The measure also officially reclassified any cannabis product possessing less than 0.3 percent THC as industrial hemp. It’s about this time some that retailers in the state first began selling CBD oil.

Then in March 2019, South Carolina’s Hemp Farming Act was passed. The measure repealed the cap on the number of hemp grower licenses in South Carolina. Since the law was signed, the state has seen a 565 percent increase in the number of hemp farmers in the state. In 2021, more than 100 South Carolina farmers are licensed to grow hemp.