The Arizona Public Safety House Committee voted 5-2 this week to send the debate over medical marijuana edibles to the full House chamber.
The bipartisan bill spells out that, when voters legalized medical marijuana use in 2010, they also meant to approve use of the plant's resin in tincture and gummy forms.
Jessica Crozier explained to the committee that her 15-year-old daughter depends on the extracts to control years of ongoing seizures.
"Families like mine, we do not need the added stress of a legal issue when we're already dealing with heavy medical issues on a daily basis," she told lawmakers.
The bill comes as Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk continues to argue against legalizing extracts, which would help bolster a case in her region.
Polk has asked the Arizona Supreme Court to rule on whether using extracts should be legal.
If the bill were to become a law, it would protect Crozier's family and others from prosecution while using medical marijuana extracts, even if the higher court strictly interprets the voter approved law to include marijuana only in its smoked form.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This headline and story has been updated to clarify the status of medical marijuana extracts is still in dispute.
