Lawmakers in Pierre are wrapping up their first week of work in the 2017 legislative session and already a number of bills have advanced closer to the Governor's desk. But one issue not being debated inside the state capitol at this time is Medical Marijuana.

A group of supporters is working to get the issue on the ballot in 2018 but they'd like to see state lawmakers take action on it this year.

Tonight we take a look at the likelihood of that happening.

Going into the 2017 session is became clear lawmakers would have some tough spending choices to make because of lower state sales tax revenues.

But another issue is beginning to bubble up in Pierre...the idea of legislation that would legalized Medical Marijuana in the state. "I think that people on both sides have hearts. They have families." Melissa Mentele is with 'New Approach South Dakota' which backs the idea of making Marijuana a legal medicine in the Rushmore State. She says it's needed to ease medical pain and to give relief to kids who suffer with seizures. "We're hoping for the session that they do something to protect children in South Dakota or provide access."

The effort to get Medical Marijuana on the 2016 ballot fell short of the number of valid signatures required.

But the topic has made the rounds in both the South Dakota House and Senate in recent years and it is again this year.

"It's something that has gotten quite a bit of bi-partisan support....something that I really didn't expect." Billie Sutton is the Democratic Minority Leader of the South Dakota Senate and tells us lawmakers should be open to the idea of making this change and he is hoping that some measure to make it happen will hit the senate floor. "There's an argument to be made that the full body should debate something like that so if nothing else I hope they move it out of the committee for that reason."

On the other side of the aisle and the other side of this issue is Republican Senator Jim Bolin. "I would be an active opponent of any effort to legalize Marijuana in any form in our state." Bolin spent decades as an educator who told his students every Friday to have a safe and sober weekend.

He says what he believes about Marijuana flies in the face of any effort to make it legal and available...even for a medicinal purpose. "No matter how emotional the appeal might be I believe that the effort to legalize Marijuana in any form in South Dakota would be a bad move for our state."

As supporters wait to see if a Medical Marijuana proposal is introduced this session, the efforts continue to move forward for ballot measures in 2018 that would legalized both recreational and medical Marijuana.

"What I have indicated as Attorney General from a matter of public safety and a matter of public health that in order for me to likely support a Marijuana piece of legislation I would need three major protections in place." South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley tells KSFY News those three protections would allow for true medicinal use and not open the door to abuse. "One would be FDA approval, one would be a South Dakota physician prescribing the medication and the other would be a South Dakota pharmacist dispensing it.."

Senator Billie Sutton is hoping for some type of change. He says current laws put parents with sick kids in quite a pinch. "They're forced to either break the law or go to a different state to get access to that type of medication."

While Senator Jim Bolin says a drug currently deemed illegal....means it's illegal. "I take a dim view of the effort to legalize Marijuana in any form."