On Wednesday, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf celebrated the passage of legislation to legalize medical marijuana in the Keystone State. He praised leaders from both parties for coming "together to help patients who have run out of medical options," a rather remarkable stroke of bipartisanship for a state that only recently ended a nine-month budget impasse.

"I have met with patients and families, held roundtables and urged action on this legislation since taking office," Wolf, a Democrat, said, "and it is encouraging that the hard work of these families has resulted in historic legislation."

The same day, the Ohio House Select Committee on Medical Marijuana, chaired by state Rep. Kirk Schuring, R-Jackson Township, unveiled a bill to legalize and regulate medical marijuana in the Buckeye State.

The legislation couldn't come at a better time. With Wolf expected to sign Pennsylvania's bill into law today, 24 states will have medical marijuana laws on the books, which Ohio lawmakers can use as case studies to determine effective policy. Polls show Ohioans overwhelmingly support legalization of medical marijuana, and proponents, recognizing this, are intent on taking the issue to the ballot box.

Maybe most significantly, one of the major barriers to medical marijuana legalization for many holdouts like Ohio soon might be addressed. Under the federal Controlled Substances Act, marijuana is classified as a Schedule 1 drug, where it has stayed since 1970. Not only does that put it on par with far more dangerous drugs like heroin, but it also means that under federal law it has "no medical use," which we know not to be true. The Drug Enforcement Administration is expected to address marijuana's classification by July. If it changes marijuana's status, it's reasonable to expect the other half of the country will explore medical marijuana legalization.

Whether support for House Bill 523 is out of a genuine desire to make the drug available to patients or simply the acknowledgment of the inevitable, Ohio lawmakers took an important first step last week to provide thousands of Ohioans with an alternative way to treat such ailments as chronic pain, cancer, epilepsy, migraines and arthritis, which traditional prescription drugs either have failed to treat or have done so inadequately.

If signed into law, legalization would be phased in over two years — one year to make and introduce rules and another year to implement them. Only licensed physicians would be permitted to recommend and dispense medical marijuana. Lawmakers promise that the drug would be taxed heavily and regulated heavily. A nine-member Medical Marijuana Control Commission would oversee pot policy and all involved entities, including growers, retail dispensers, physicians and research labs.

Home-growing would be barred. Minors would be able to receive a prescription only with the consent of a parent or guardian. Applicants would have to undergo a background check, and the commission would establish a database of patients and the medical conditions for which they were prescribed marijuana.

State lawmakers were caught flat-footed last year when the group ResponsibleOhio sought to legalize marijuana for recreational and medicinal purposes. The constitutional amendment would have conferred on 10 investors the grow rights of commercial marijuana production across the state.

Though the proposal, which this newspaper opposed, was soundly defeated by voters, there was no dismissing a statement repeated throughout the campaign by ResponsibleOhio Executive Director Ian James: The investors "are doing what the legislature has failed to do."

That's a fair criticism of state lawmakers when it comes to medical marijuana. Until now.

Because it could ease the pain and other symptoms of people who suffer from debilitating medical conditions and because the state would be strict in its regulation of it "from seed to sale," we believe the time is right to legalize medical marijuana.