Marijuana is believed to bring relief to those who suffer pain like headaches or from a disease like cancer and some studies suggest it might lessen the symptoms for multiple sclerosis.

“Under a doctor’s care, through proper procedures, I think it’s something we as a society should’ve done long ago,” Griffith said. “This gives the [Drug Enforcement Administration] the ability to say, this is the way you ought to do it. If we’re going to use marijuana legitimately for medical uses, it ought to be done with the DEA and the [Food and Drug Administration] and doctors going through the proper channels.”

He said if doctors or users abuse the drug, the DEA could crack down on them, just as it does on illicit use of other drugs.

In Virginia, a law was passed in 1979 permitting prescribed medical marijuana for treatment of glaucoma and cancer, but federal law still does not permit it. Tennessee passed and then repealed a similar law in the 1980s. Twenty-one states currently allow medical marijuana and more have pending legislation that would allow it.

Fellow Republican Bill Carrico, a state senator from Fries, Va., said he doesn’t think marijuana should be legalized in any form.