This legislation creates a medical marijuana program that tightly regulates the cultivation, processing, testing, and dispensing of medical marijuana to ensure patients have legal, safe, and reliable access to a consistent product without breaking the law to obtain it.

Illness does not discriminate; it finds people from all walks of life. Mothers, sons, veterans, co-workers, friends. There is no doubt that each and every one of us knows someone that has suffered through an illness and struggled to find a way to make it through each day.

While there are often medications that doctors can prescribe to help combat these illnesses, many come with side effects that can make living a normal life a lot more difficult. In some cases, the only option for pain relief can be to take opioids on a long term basis, which can lead to a whole host of other challenges our state is already trying to tackle.