By a margin of just three votes, senators approved legalizing medical marijuana, however, smoking and growing marijuana at home is still prohibited. The close vote showed how divided Ohio lawmakers remain on the plant, even if it is strictly for medical purposes. But in the end, a majority wanted control over the state’s medical marijuana operation, hoping to slow down a group pushing a constitutional amendment.

The bill was approved late Wednesday bay House lawmakers, sending it to Gov. Jogn Kasich’s desk.

If Kasich signs the bill, Ohio would become the 25th state to legalize medical marijuana. Kasich hasn’t said whether he’ll support this plan but has expressed interest in passing some sort of bill related to medical marijuana, especially targeting children suffering from epilepsy.

All Wednesday, lawmakers were counting votes to see if the if the bill would pass the Senate. “All I can do is my best to keep drugs out of the Ohio Constitution,” Sen. Dave Burke, R-Marysville, told The Enquirer Wednesday morning. He and Sen. Kenny Yuko, D-Richmond Heights, held town hall meetings across the state to listen to residents’ concerns about medical marijuana.

The watched as the bill barely passed committee Wednesday morning, 7-5. Four Republicans and Cleveland-area Democrat Sen. Michael Skindell opposed the bill. Sen. Edna Brown, D-Toledo, tried to remove a passage that would allow employers to fire employees who might  test positive for marijuana and prohibit them from drawing unemployment benefits, even if they use it for medical purposes – a safeguard for some Democrats. But her request was quickly rejected.

Earlier in the month, House legislators passed the medical marijuana plan by a comparatively wide margin, 71-26. Still, some Democrats, including Rep. Alicia Reece, D-Roselawn, voted against the plan because of the provisions allowing employees to be fired for marijuana use.

The threat of a constitutional amendment on medical marijuana loomed over lawmakers. Two groups are working toward qualifying for the November ballot. The leading effort, backed by Ohioans for Medical Marijuana with support from the Marijuana Policy Project, a legalization giant, would allow people to grow marijuana and smoke it. The constitutional amendment would allow 15 large marijuana operations and numerous smaller farms across the state. It is unclear how many cultivators would be allowed under the lawmakers plan.

Ohioans for Medical Marijuana vowed late Wednesday to move forward with effort.

“Our constitutional amendment builds on the legislature’s work by incorporating national best practices and offers voters an opportunity to enact a law free of the horse-trading inherent in the legislative process,” spokesman Aaron Marshall said in a statement. “Our amendment also protects the rights of patients in the Ohio Constitution, not leaving this important issue vulnerable to the reach of special interests.”

Marshall’s group and Athens-based Grassroots Ohio have until July 6 to collect the more than 305,000 signatures needed to put their proposals before voters.

Contents of the Legislature’s medical marijuana legalization plan:

What’s not in the plan?

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Ohioans for Medical Marijuana released the full text of a 2016 ballot initiative that would legalize medical marijuana in the state of Ohio.

The DC-based Marijuana Policy Project led by Executive Director Rob Kampia, backed the group.

Patients with “debilitating medical conditions” will be allowed to use medical marijuana if their doctor recommend it and patients using it will be protected from arrest and prosecution.

The list of medical conditions include:

“Cancer, glaucoma, positive status for human immunodeficiency virus, acquired immune deficiency syndrome, hepatitis C, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, agitation of Alzheimer’s disease, post-traumatic stress disorder, or the treatment of these conditions; a chronic or debilitating disease or medical condition or its treatment that produces one or more of the following: cachexia or wasting syndrome; severe debilitating pain; severe nausea; seizures, including but not limited to those characteristic of epilepsy; severe and persistent muscle spasms, including but not limited to those characteristic of multiple sclerosis.”

The proposal also says that “any other medical condition or its treatment” could be added to the list if it is approved by the Medical Marijuana Control Division, which was created to oversee the licenses.

The initiative would also allow qualifying patients or their caregivers to cultivate their own marijuana for their medical use, with limits on the amount they could possess.

Medical marijuana can be purchased by qualifying patients from licensed and regulated entities. The proposal outlines five categories of possible medical marijuana business. The include cultivation, manufacturing, testing, distribution and dispensaries.

“From the patient perspective, the only thing that matter is the dispensaries, which are the retail outlets,” Kampia said in a teleconference Tuesday. “They’ll look like pharmacies.”

The proposal creates registry identification cards for patients.

It also has built-in protections for patients from discrimination in employment, housing, health care, and child custody.

Restrictions on the medical use of marijuana, including prohibitions on the public use of and driver under the influence of marijuana is outlined in the proposal.

If this proposal is indeed approved by the Ohio Ballot Board, a signature drive will span from April to June 2016, with the goal of submitting at least 305m591 valid signatures by the first week of July.

While many patients see the proposal as a blessing, some medical professionals have raised concerns about “smokeable medicine.”

“We already have marijuana in legal form that people can take for particular diagnoses,” said Dr. Christina Delos Reyes, Director of the Addiction Psychiatry Fellowship at UH Case Medical Center. “What I’m concerned is that this is just opening up the field for people to use a smoked product to treat an unlimited number of disorders.”

Reyes said that marinol, a pill form of cannabis, is already used to treat complications caused by HIV and AIDS as well as severe nausea caused by cancer chemotherapy.

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