With patients and advocates for the legalization of medical marijuana in the audience, Utah senators gave preliminary approval Friday to an incremental step to deal with cannabis, while a more sweeping bill that appeared in jeopardy may have been given new life.

Senators backed SB89 sponsored by Sen. Evan Vickers, R-Cedar City, that would allow the use of cannabidiol extracts from marijuana plants that do not contain THC — the psychoactive drug in marijuana — for treatment of epilepsy and other ailments.

Critics of Vickers’ bill have said it doesn’t go far enough to help patients who say they need access to all of the chemicals in marijuana in order to treat their illnesses, but Vickers argued his bill is a cautious first step that avoids problems he says have arisen in other states that legalized medical marijuana. [Read more at the Salt Lake Tribune]