BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- A Republican representative from Calhoun County has filed a bill in the Alabama House of Representatives to make medical marijuana legal.

Rep. K.L. Brown, R-Jacksonville, has told the Anniston Star that his sister used medical marijuana to control her pain before she died of breast cancer 25 years ago. He told the Star that he sees the drug as a way to help similar suffering Alabamians.

Brown runs the K.L. Brown Funeral Home, and has also been a board member of Hospice of East Alabama and president of the Alabama Funeral Directors Association, which gives the 60-year-old experience with some of the issues that surround death.

The bill, Brown told the Star, would allow marijuana strictly for medicinal purposes, under the control of the state health department and law enforcement. Brown said it in no way is part of any effort to decriminalize the drug.

Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have legalized medical marijuana, according to the website ProCon.org, a nonprofit group that presents arguments for and against 42 controversial issues.