The Alabama legislature on Wednesday voted to decriminalize medicinal marijuana oil possession.

In a 95-4 vote in the House of Representatives and a 29-3 vote in the Senate, legislators supported a bill supporters say is a bid to help families struggling with debilitating medical conditions.

Though derived from cannabis, cannabidiol doesn't cause a high like marijuana due to reduced amounts of the psychoactive property tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. Proponents say it can help alleviate severe seizures, among other conditions.

"This is an opportunity to give some sunlight to families," said Sen. Paul Sanford, who sponsored the bill in the Senate. "They don't want to feel like criminals, but they know they need to try something like this."

Lee Carroll Brooker, a 75-year-old disabled veteran suffering from chronic pain, was arrested in July 2011 for growing three dozen marijuana plants for his own medicinal use behind his son’s house in Dothan, Ala., where he lived. For this crime, Mr. Brooker was given a life sentence with no possibility of release.

Alabama law mandates that anyone with certain prior felony convictions be sentenced to life without parole for possessing more than 1 kilogram, or 2.2 pounds, of marijuana, regardless of intent to sell. Mr. Brooker had been convicted of armed robberies in Florida two decades earlier, for which he served 10 years. The marijuana plants collected at his son’s house — including unusable parts like vines and stalks — weighed 2.8 pounds.

As the state of Alabama and our elected officials stumble forward into our next fiscal year, we are once again hit with cries of budget cuts, tax hikes, and another movement of funds from our woeful education system into the general fund.

According to al.com, such budgetary solutions range from a lottery, which is a hidden tax on the poor and uneducated of our neighbors, to an additional tax on gas now that it's cheap. The governor, in his State of the State address, proposed new prison initiatives in order to stem the maintenance costs of the prison budget, which is the second largest agency siphoning from the general fund, at a whopping $400 million.

Three moms, three children suffering from various forms of epilepsy, three different stories trying to share one message:

Legalize medicinal oil derived from marijuana.

In Alabama, that potential law has been dubbed Leni's Law and state Rep. Mike Ball, R-Huntsville, is the bill's sponsor. Sen. Paul Sanford, R-Huntsville, will carry the bill in the Senate.

On Monday, the three moms addressed the Madison County legislative delegation at its annual public forum. Their singular message came from three different vantage points:

State Rep. Mike Ball holds Leni Young on the day Carly's Law passed the legislature in 2014.

Amy Young and her family moved to Oregon because the medicine her daughter needs is illegal in Alabama.

State Rep. Mike Ball said he plans to introduce a bill next month to change that. And he's confident it's going to pass.

"The people I've talked to about it seem very receptive to it," said Ball, R-Madison. "It's nothing like it was a couple of years ago when I started on Carly's Law. This is a whole different dynamic."

Cullman County authorities have carried out the second-largest marijuana seizure in Alabama this year. 

Around 4 p.m. Thursday, Cullman Narcotics Enforcement agents located 1,800 rooted, mature marijuana plants in the Arkadelphia community of Cullman County. 

Cullman County Sheriff Matt Gentry said it was an elaborate organization with an advanced water filtration system and tents set up where he believes people have been living for months, tending to the plants. 

"This is a huge bust for us in Cullman County, because it seized approximately $3.6 million worth of marijuana," Gentry said. 

With the help of the Cullman police helicopter, Cullman County officials say it took approximately five hours to get all of the plants cut down.  

A U.S. senator on Thursday connected President Barack Obama’s comments on marijuana to drug overdose deaths.

Amid a lengthy speech calling for increased penalties for drug offenders, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) noted that Obama had admitted to smoking marijuana. Last year, the president said that marijuana is not more dangerous than alcohol.

“I think it needs to be said that the president should never have said smoking marijuana is like smoking cigarettes: ‘Oh, I wish I hadn’t done it,’ Sessions said on the Senate floor. “That is the kind of message people hear. Now we have states legalizing it, and they are already talking about recriminalizing it. It is a mistake. We have seen that experiment before. Lives are at stake.”

MADISON -- A burning van that briefly entertained spectators attending a concert at Breese Stevens Field on Friday night was owned by an Alabama man who told Madison firefighters he had invested $100,000 into customizing the cab for his business.

The business is Weed World Candies, which sells marijana-flavored lollipops.

The burned-out 1999 Chevy Express van appeared to be a total loss and was the target of many amateur photographers outside the Avett Brothers concert. It was bright green, and was apparently part of a fleet of vehicles that travel the country selling marijuana-flavored candy and baked goods.

Aubrie Hill, 20, grew up in Huntsville but moved to California earlier this month to have legal access to medical marijuana to help treat her epilepsy.

The passion and the energy resonated from California to Alabama, the video interview providing a window into the raw determination that drives Vicki Hill.

She left 32 years of her life behind in Huntsville to relocate to northern California in search of a medical marijuana sanctuary for her 20-year-old daughter, Aubrie, who has suffered from epilepsy since she was 5.