Utah’s Legislature this year shot down the bills fighting to make Medical Cannabis legal in the state.Both bills would allow the sale and prescription by medical professionals of medical marijuana to those who have such medical issues in order to lessen the pain.

One bill proposed medical marijuana with low quantities of the chemical called THC that is responsible for the high; the other bill still had a much lower content of THC than recreational marijuana. However, it did contain a higher level of THC than the other proposed bill which would take away more of the illness symptoms. The Daily Universe said, when discussing why these specific laws had a bigger impact than most, “During the 2016 Utah Legislative session, SB73 and SB89 were viewed more times on the legislative website than any other resolutions.”

Currently in Utah, the law states that only those with epilepsy can use medical marijuana. However, they cannot obtain it within the state. Other states have legalized medical marijuana for a variety of diseases because of its ability to decrease pain, and most have legalized it for at least epilepsy. The Marijuana Policy Project said,“Under current Utah law, possession of as little as an ounce or less of marijuana can result in a six-month jail sentence.”

Since the drug is wanted by a number of people here in Utah, and it remains illegal to find it within the state, there is a new question to be asking: What measures are people in Utah willing to take to get medical marijuana? Drug Policy Alliance said, “There were 700,993 marijuana arrests in 2014.”

Our neighboring state, Colorado, has made recreational marijuana legal to use and sell by its people, which has the full amounts of the THC chemical. The only other state to legalize recreational marijuana has been Washington. Live Science said “It is the most commonly used illegal drug in America.” It is a possibility that we could lose residents and hospital patients due to the potential desire to obtain the drug.

The Daily Herald said, “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints made a statement opposing SB73 and raising no objection to SB89.” That can be discussed as one of the reasons why the bills didn’t pass this time around. This was a big step forward nonetheless in the medical marijuana cause for Utah’s citizens and might create another big move for another bill or push for medical cannabis becoming legal.