Kansas is one of just four states where every form of marijuana is illegal.

"We're throwing people in jail still for a plant that in one state over people are millionaires for doing the exact same thing,” said Michael Webb, Dude Smell This CBD shop manager.

Something advocates like Michael Webb have spent years working to change.

"If we don't start taking action in a positive manner in some of the things people want here, more people are going to leave; less people are gonna come,” stated Webb. “I mean, why would you come to Kansas when the industry is so crippled when you can just go to Oklahoma, Colorado.”

But despite recent bills, Webb and many others say it's not likely to happen this year.

A new study from the independent Kansas Health Institute points to some reasons why, like possible risks and figuring out how to regulate the drug.

"There was really only complicit and substantial evidence that cannabis or cannabinoids were effective for three things, one of them being chronic pain, another being chemo-induced nausea and multiple sclerosis spasticity symptoms,” one of the institute's researchers explained. “And then there were other findings that suggest that there are some negative impacts, particularly mental health impacts, substantial increase in psychosis and impacts on schizophrenia."

Advocates say they've seen more good than bad, like Christine Gordon, who moved her seven-year-old daughter from Kansas to Colorado so she could use medical marijuana to help with her constant seizures.

"In Kansas, I didn't have a name," said Gordon. "She would just reach her hand out when she needed me. Now, she calls me mamma all the time which is like music."

It's stories like this, that motivate advocates to keep fighting.

"In thousands of years of up-regulation, it's never killed anybody,” said Webb.

Medical marijuana advocates across the state say even if it's not legalized this year, they have hope for next year.