Medical marijuana legalization keeps inching closer to reality in North Carolina, as it moves from committee to committee where legislators tweak the bill, then pass it on to the next.

The bill seems to have broad bipartisan support so far. Its GOP sponsors have repeatedly told their fellow Republicans that they believe North Carolina should join most of the rest of the country in legalizing medical marijuana — but that they want the rules here to be the strictest anywhere in the nation.

Democrats overwhelmingly support the bill, Senate Bill 711, with many saying it’s too strict but better than nothing. Meanwhile Republicans, who control the majority in both chambers of the General Assembly, have mostly been supportive or silent. Only a small number have opposed the bill, at least in public.

And while the original version of the bill was lauded by its GOP backers for its strict rules, over the past few months it has gotten even stricter. That continued Tuesday afternoon as the Senate advanced yet another new version of the bill. It passed through the Senate Judiciary Committee, with no one voting against it. [Read More @ The Raleigh News Observer]