ALBANY, N.Y. -- With time running out in Albany, the Senate and Assembly approved a bill to give quicker access to medical marijuana for patients who need it, even before the Compassionate Care Act is scheduled to go into full effect -- but there is still one more hurdle before advocates start celebrating.
"This is a huge win. You have a situation where you have bipartisan strong, strong bipartisan agreement," said Gabriel Sayegh, of the Drug Policy Alliance.
"If these kids who are having in some cases dozens of seizures a day have to wait until the system is up and running, optimistically sometime in 2016, that's an awful lot of torture to these children," said Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, D-Manhattan.
The state is still reviewing applications for medical marijuana dispensaries. Only five licenses will be granted throughout New York state which expected to be announced in the next month.
"In the interim, you need to have someway to provide relief to those New Yorkers who are suffering," Sayegh said.
But despite passing both chambers, the Drug Policy Alliance is concerned the governor may veto this bill.
"You have patients and family who are suffering. There's a way that we can relieve that suffering and it takes some action and leadership. We're just not getting that out of Albany right now in terms of the governor," said Sayegh.
The governors office, not commenting on pending legislation, would only say, "Our top priority has always been to deliver relief to those in pain. We will review the legislation in the context of implementing the Compassionate Care Act and complying with existing federal statutes.”
One lawmaker, who voted against the measure says its just rushing the medical marijuana program.
"Before drugs are made available to people they should be carefully tested under controlled circumstances so that we can understand and respond to the side effects," said Assemblyman Andrew Goodell, R-Jamestown.
"All this bill says is you should and we give you the authority to do something special for this small groups of patients," said Gottfried.
Some lawmakers also stressed concern over where the medical marihuana would come from because it's not legal in New York state yet. Meanwhile that bill, is just the governor's signature from becoming law.