BOSTON – Before her son died of cancer in 2008, Lorraine E. Kerz, of Greenfield, promised him she would work to legalize the drug that she said helped him deal with anxiety and the side effects of chemotherapy. Her son, Silas R. Bennett, used marijuana as a medicine to ease severe nausea and pain before he died at age 29 from cancer, she said. Kerz, 53, is pushing for approval of a medical marijuana bill. “It’s time for our state legislators to step up and pass something for people who are ill and need it,” said Kerz, who does not use marijuana. “People with qualifying illnesses should be able to benefit.”

Under the bill, people with certain medical conditions, including cancer, glaucoma and AIDS, would register with the state Department of Public Health and would be allowed to use and possess marijuana if recommended by a doctor. Each patient would have an identification card and would be limited to possessing up to 4 ounces of cannabis and 12 plants. The state would be authorized to permit and regulate a limited number of nonprofit centers that could grow marijuana and provide it to certified patients. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Frank I. Smizik, D-Brookline, is unlikely to pass this year, judging by a vote taken on Tuesday. The Committee on Public Health voted for a further study, which usually indicates the bill is dead for this year. Technically, however, the bill is still alive. Rep. Jeffrey D. Sanchez, D-Boston, the co-chair of the Public Health Committee, said the bill would expand a state bureaucracy and needs more thought. Sanchez said medical marijuana is a complicated issue. “We’re going to look at it,” Sanchez said. “I didn’t feel we could act favorably.” Another committee member, Rep. Donald F. Humason, R-Westfield, said he is not convinced that a medical marijuana law would be a panacea for people with certain illnesses. Humason noted that a new law decriminalizes the possession of small amounts of marijuana in Massachusetts. The law, which took effect in January of last year, replaces criminal penalties for possessing an ounce or less of marijuana with a civil fine of $100, about the same as getting a traffic ticket. Sixty-five percent of voters approved the ballot law on Nov. 4. “There’s some sense that’s enough for the time being,” Humason said. An advocate for the medical marijuana bill, Marcy M. Duda, 49, of Ware, said legislators are wrong for putting the bill into a study. Duda, a retired home health aide and mother of four, said she uses marijuana with a vaporizer to inhale the drug. She said marijuana helps her cope with surgery for aneurysms, headaches and depression. “It helps for everything,” she said. She said prescriptions such as OxyContin made her sick. Former Gov. William F. Weld actually signed a medical marijuana law that took effect in 1992 and was later amended. The law authorized a state certification program for people to use marijuana as a medication for certain conditions, but the law depended on the federal government supplying the marijuana through the National Institute of Drug Abuse, which grows marijuana in Mississippi for research purposes. The federal government rejected supply requests from the state, said Matthew J. Allen, an organizer for the Massachusetts Patient Advocacy Alliance in Boston. Fourteen other states have laws that give seriously ill patients safe and legal access to marijuana for medical reasons, including Rhode Island, Maine and Vermont, Allen said.