The North Carolina Senate agreed Tuesday to legalize marijuana for medical use, casting an initial vote to make the drug available for patients under tight restrictions.

Senate Bill 3, the “Compassionate Care Act,” would allow medical marijuana use statewide for people who have cancer, ALS, Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, post-traumatic stress disorder and other ailments. Those do not include chronic pain, and the drug would not be allowed for recreational use.

The bill passed a preliminary vote 36-10 with broad bipartisan support, at exactly 4:20 p.m., a time with plenty of significance in marijuana culture.

It would need to receive one more vote before it can be sent to the House, where it died last year after not being allowed a vote, and could face resistance again.

Sen. Jim Burgin of Harnett County was one of 10 Republicans who voted against the bill in the Senate on Tuesday. In brief remarks before the vote, Burgin said that marijuana isn’t medicine, and hasn’t undergone the “rigorous testing” medicine goes through. He also said he felt the bill could lead to full legalization of marijuana.

This year, prospects in the House may be better. Last week, House Speaker Tim Moore said that the Senate’s medical marijuana bill had “decent prospects of passage” and that there had been a shift in opinion in the House. [Read More @ The Raleigh News Observer]