JEFFERSON CITY - The Senate General Laws Committee heard passionate testimony Tuesday, April 1, in support of a bill that would allow the use of marijuana to alleviate dire medical conditions.

The bill would change Missouri law, and require those in possession of marijuana to have a registry identification card such as qualified patients and primary care givers. To qualify a person must have a debilitating condition and must use marijuana within their home.

Delores Selvan a registered nurse passionately expressed her outrage over the state not allowing marijuana usage.

"I realize Missouri is a conservative state, but we are also the show-me state." Selvan said. "We can be the first state to produce Charlotte's web on a massive scale and save these children."

Charlotte's Web is a strain of marijuana used for relieving painful symptoms of epilepsy and cancer. Many that testified endorsed Charlotte's web saying it could help their family member's condition.

Randy Johnson's son who suffers from a very rare condition that causes him to have hundreds of seizures a day, she said medical marijuana like Charlotte's web would give her son a better life.

"I'm here as a mother because we have exhausted all legal options and medications."

Ray Bates testified on behalf of the Missouri Association of Osteopath Physicians and Surgeons, saying that the FDA has not tested marijuana to see what effect the drug is having on the patients condition and could put doctors in jeopardy of malpractice if the patient files suit for not getting the wanted results.

A similar measure has stalled in the House House Crime Prevention Committee that held a hearing on the measure March 10.

The committee chair, Rep Dave Hinson, R-St. Clair said he was working on a substitute for the measure.

According to non-profit website Procon.org, 21 states allow the usage of medical marijuana,