The medical marijuana bill is gaining steam in West Virginia.

State lawmakers have long been concerned with the compassionate use of marijuana for medical use but previous bills for this purpose have gone up in smoke.

Delegate John Ellem says there's a good chance we may see legislation pass that lowers criminal penalties for marijuana in general rather than medical legalization.

"There's certainly a lot of other options for pain treatment out there, other than going through the legalization of marijuana," Ellem says. "The bill is kind of broad in its definition of a debilitating medical condition. It even included nausea, severe nausea in it, so I think it's written a little bit broadly."

Ellem says legalizing marijuana on the state level still leaves a person open to prosecution by federal authorities if they choose to do so.

He says we can't control what the federal government does so it would be giving citizens a false sense of hope or misinformation.