Updated on May 7, 2019 at 3:10 p.m. with the final vote on House Bill 1365 and on May 8, 2019 at 11:00 a.m. with the final vote of House Bill 3703.

AUSTIN — The Texas House has moved forward two bills that would expand the state's medical marijuana laws.

Under the state's Compassionate Use Act, only Texans diagnosed with intractable epilepsy are allowed to use cannabis that contains low levels of the psychoactive ingredient tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. This week, the House overwhelmingly approved two bills to broaden that law.

The first to pass, by Rep. Eddie Lucio III, D-Brownsville, would cover many more patients with a variety of different ailments. The other bill, by Rep. Stephanie Klick, R-Fort Worth, would allow for a far more limited expansion of the state's medical marijuana law.

The House gave Lucio's bill final approval by a vote of 128-20 on Tuesday. It OK'd Klick's legislation by a vote of 133-10 Wednesday morning. Both bills now head to the Senate for further debate.

"There are countless Texans enduring insurmountable pain as they battle diseases like cancer, autism and PTSD," Lucio said as he introduced his bill late Monday evening. "This is undoubtedly a complex bill, members. But it has taken countless hours of time to develop a system we believe would work best to serve those in need.

"By combining needed patient protections and a comprehensive research component, this bill provides a framework to improve the lives of countless Texans in the near future."

In laying out her bill, Klick, who authored the original Compassionate Use Act, said the intent in creating that law in 2015 "was and still is to have a truly medical program that follows the scientific data."

Klick, a nurse, said she added multiple sclerosis to the acceptable uses for medical marijuana because "the scientific data is fully developed for MS." Her bill would create a research program under the state's Health and Human Services Commission to study the use of low-THC medical marijuana.

"We need more data for us to truly know if this medication helps other conditions," Klick said. "Our state-of-the-art research facilities here in Texas are well-suited to participate in this research."

Lucio's bill goes much further than Klick's.

His House Bill 1365 would broaden the Compassionate Use Act to cover Texans with a variety of diseases and persistent medical conditions, including autism, cancer, Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease, post-traumatic stress disorder, muscular dystrophy and multiple sclerosis. The bill also would cover people with any medical condition that produces severe nausea, persistent muscle spasms or severe intractable pain, and it would set up a 12-member "cannabis therapeutic research program" to develop guidelines for administering medical marijuana, quality control for purity and labeling and best practices for cultivation.

The board would determine the "appropriate formulations and dosages" for specific conditions.

House Bill 3703, Klick's proposal, would expand the law to patients with multiple sclerosis, persistent muscle spasms and all forms of epilepsy.

Although the House extended bipartisan approval to both bills, their chances of becoming law are unclear. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who heads the Senate, publicly opposed a bill to lower the criminal penalties for possession of small amounts of marijuana. That bill, like Lucio's medical marijuana legislation, passed with the support of more than 100 House members.

A Patrick spokesman told The Texas Tribune in March that the lieutenant governor is "strongly opposed to weakening any laws against marijuana [and] remains wary of the various medicinal use proposals that could become a vehicle for expanding access to this drug."

Last week, Klick said she is "very optimistic" her bill has a chance of gaining traction in the Senate. The legislative session ends May 27.