A medical marijuana bill passed by the House Health & Welfare Committee earlier this year ultimately died on the chamber floor. It’s passage planted a larger seed in the General Assembly that committee chair Tom Burch said will eventually come to fruition.

“I think eventually it will happen, because every survey I’ve run shows big percentages of people that want it legalized," Burch said. "I’m sure some of the legislators here on this panel, if they surveyed their district, probably comes back close to mine.”

“I was here when we criminalized the use of marijuana back in the 70s," Burch said. "It was a rush to get these criminals off the street, and all this kind of stuff that was going on. It was ill advised, but it was a good election year and everybody wanted to be against crime, so that's why we passed it, so that a little bag of marijuana would get you five years."

But GOP support will be crucial to the passage of the bill. Republicans in the Senate are concerned about people using the drug for recreational purposes. Senator Julie Denton, a Republican on the joint committee, said members of her party who supported a successful bipartisan effort to legalize medicinal cannabis oil still remain opposed to marijuana.