The 25 to 8 affirmative vote by members of the state House Rules Committee means the proposal, Senate Bill 3, could be voted on by the full House as early as next week. Members of the Pennsylvania Senate passed the measure in May by a vote of 40 to 7.

Senate Bill 3 would legalize marijuana use for patients with certain illnesses and establish a regulatory framework for growing, processing and prescribing the drug. Its passage would make Pennsylvania the 24th state to legalize medical marijuana.

It’s time for legislators to take this step, which will help provide a legal avenue to relief for patients the drug can help.

There appears to be widespread medical consensus that patients with diseases like AIDS, cancer, epilepsy and other serious conditions can benefit from marijuana. Millions have already used the drug to relieve pain, nausea, insomnia and other symptoms of various illnesses.

Millions of Pennsylvanians apparently want patients to have access to the drug as well. A 2013 poll by Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster found that 82 percent of state residents favored the use of medical marijuana. A 2014 Quinnipiac University poll put support at 85 percent.

Additionally, polls show that the majority of the country favors medical legalization at the federal level, where marijuana is still — unbelievably — classified as a Schedule I narcotic, right up there with heroin, methamphetamine and LSD.

Marijuana’s classification is a debate for another time. For now, our legislators should focus on learning from the mistakes of other states that already have stepped down this path.

Pennsylvania’s medical legalization of marijuana can’t afford to create a muddled, chaotic system — like the one lawmakers in California have been working to clean up for years — that encourages exploitation and abuse. Or the one Ohio voters just rejected because it would have granted a production monopoly to a handful of investors.

It also can’t be an overly-restrictive quagmire — like a 2014 proposal by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo — that places too many limits on the type of marijuana that can be used, and the number of hospitals allowed to dispense the drug.

That’s a fine line to walk, but Pennsylvania seems to be on the right track. Patients with qualifying conditions would need to get access cards from the state Department of Health, which would regulate up to 65 growers, 65 processors and 130 dispensers — each of which would pay $50,000 for a state license to handle medical marijuana.

Pennsylvania’s legalization of medical marijuana could engender an industry worth between $333 million and $665 million per year, according to a fiscal note from the Senate Appropriations Committee. We hope lawmakers don’t let dollar signs obscure their vision of what’s truly important here: patients’ health, safety and comfort.