SURFSIDE BEACH S.C. (WBTW) — The Surfside Beach Planning Commission is considering a ban on businesses that sell cannabis and will have a public hearing Tuesday evening to get input on proposed changes to the town’s ordinances.

Councilman Michael Drake said if South Carolina legalizes it, why petition that.

Drake said the fact that you would be able to buy it in Myrtle Beach and Garden City and still be allowed to use it in Surfside Beach doesn’t make any sense.

“We don’t need to make laws, trying to step over it, dance around it, and everything else. It’s more people, DUIs and drunk than there are that,” said Drake.

On Jan. 27, the 15th Circuit Solicitor’s Office sent a letter to state senators opposing a bill that would legalize the medical use of marijuana in South Carolina, and although the Senate has since passed it, the solicitor said his opinion on the topic has remained the same.

“I don’t know how we did without medical marijuana for 200 years here, and why there’s such urgency today to have medical marijuana,” Solicitor Jimmy Richardson said.

Richardson said he agrees that marijuana isn’t as bad as methamphetamines or heroin, but he said it’s also important to look at what’s happening in other states that have legalized the drug.

“My message has always been, if the prosecutors, the police, and the doctors in Boulder ‘[Colorado] tell you ‘man you got to have it,’ then that’s what we should do. If they say crime has plummeted we need to do it,” Richardson said.

Drake said that when it comes to the town’s proposed ordinance, it wouldn’t make much difference if it’s legal for the entire state.

“So, you can buy it in Myrtle beach, you can buy in Garden City, and you can bring it back over here and use it, but you can’t buy it here. That don’t make no sense,” he said.

Mayor Bob Hellyer said he has not formed an opinion yet.

The public hearing on the proposed ordinance is planned for 6 p.m. Tuesday at the town’s civic center.