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The state House of Representatives began debating the bill Wednesday afternoon and it passed late Wednesday night, 96-51.
The legislation calls for only allowing residents with certain debilitating conditions to purchase medical marijuana for palliative purposes.
Erik Williams is the Executive Director of CT NORML, the National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws. He says this year's legislation is much improved from the bill last session.
"It addresses the big fears people had that anyone could get a prescription for medical marijuana. It also lays out real regulations behind the bill. Some real details as to the actual ability for patients to obtain the medicine they need. That was lacking in the bill last year."
The bill would require dispensaries that sell medical marijuana to be licensed by the state. Williams says there are other requirements for patients that keep Connecticut from adopting what he calls the west coast model of distributing medical marijuana.
"They would have to get a recommendation from their doctor, a doctor that they have a relationship so it's not going to be the "pot doctor" who brings someone in and gives them a card on the way out."
Last year, the bill made it past the requisite legislative committees but lawmakers never called it for a vote. Williams thinks this could be the year because House leadership supports the measure. And Governor Dannel Malloy says he'd sign the bill unlike former Governor Jodi Rell who vetoed a medical marijuana bill in 2007.
