Senator Peter Harckham knows about addiction and substance abuse: It's a personal story for him that's influenced his thoughts on marijuana legalization. 

"As someone in recovery myself for many years, I look at it from the lens and as a parent I look at it from that lens," Harckham said. 

Harckham on Thursday backed the bill, but with conditions. He wants the money generated from marijuana sales to go drug awareness campaigns and treatment programs. 

"We're at a crisis point — 500,000 people have died in the last decade from overdose deaths," he said. "If that's not a crisis and the sky falling, I don't know what is. We desperately need that revenue."

Harckham was flanked by the bill's sponsor Senator Liz Krueger, who is hopeful she's making in-roads with her skeptical colleagues. 

"I've been continually meeting with and talking to people who were no's or were not sure," Krueger said. "This year people who were not sure, are saying, I can get there, Liz."

Krueger agrees with Harckham that what has amounted to prohibition hasn't worked. 

"Availability of marijuana, as Pete just pointed out, is easier to get than pretty much any other product in the state of New York," she said. 

But there's still work to do. Several lawmakers on the Democratic side remain unconvinced, especially when it comes to traffic safety.