State Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Glendale, and state Rep. Caleb Jones, R-California, have several things in common, in addition to being lawmakers in Missouri's current General Assembly.
Both are attorneys.
And both are friends with Matt Jessee, a Brentwood man studying to be an attorney.
When they learned Jessee and his family are moving to Colorado because that state allows children with "intractable," or difficult to treat, epilepsy to have access to CBD oil, which is processed from a specially developed hemp plant - the two lawmakers moved quickly to see about getting Missouri's law changed so the oil could be available here, too.
They talked with people in Colorado, learning more about the development of CBD oil from cannabis, making sure the plant has very little THC - the chemical that causes the "high" in marijuana - but has high levels of cannabidiol.
They learned about people like Paige Figi, who's lived in Colorado for two decades.
When her daughter, Charlotte, was just 5, doctors said she was dying because they couldn't find a way to treat her severe epilepsy, which was causing about 1,200 grand mal seizures each month.
Paige's research into the Stanley brothers' development of cannabis helped lead to further refinements that became CBD oil.
"Because this is something that developed while we were in session," Schmitt told the full Senate last Thursday morning, before the chamber voted unanimously, 32-0, to pass the bill, "Caleb Jones and I, working with the Department of Agriculture in our state, and other folks around the country who have been working on this - tried to create a regulatory framework that would give a level of comfort for us moving in this direction."
Jones filed the proposed law for Missouri on March 30 - the last day for filing bills in the House.
The House General Laws Committee took testimony on the bill April 8 and, the same day, recommended the full House pass the bill.
The House did so April 24, on a 139-14 vote, then approved the emergency clause by a 136-14 margin.
The Senate's Judiciary Committee heard its testimony on the bill last Wednesday, then also recommended the full Senate pass the bill just minutes after hearing about the proposal.
The Missouri law would require a family to show they had tried three different treatments of prescription medicines before seeking the CBD oil treatment.
"In my opinion, we should be able to have this available out of the gate," Jones told the Senate committee last week, "but this is a very cautious measure.
"We want to make sure this wasn't the first medicine to be tried, but is the prescription of last resort."
In explaining why the Senate should pass the bill, Schmitt told colleagues his son's story of battling epilepsy - a disease that means Stephen Schmitt, now 9, still "is non-verbal" and still sleeps in his parents' bedroom because "he has seizures at night" as well as during the day.
And when that happens, Sen. Schmitt said, "All I can do is just hold him and say that I love him."
As the parent of a child with intractable epilepsy and trouble finding a treatment that will help, Schmitt said, CBD oil and its 80 percent efficacy rate holds great promise.
"I pray every night when I'm holding him that something will make a difference," Schmitt said. "I don't know if this will - we've had hope before and it hasn't worked out.
"It might or it might not, but we're willing to try."
Before the Senate's vote, Schmitt also noted that as a number of U.S. states are debating the idea, "There are other, more controversial proposals."
But Sen. Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia, told Schmitt others will question if the Missouri law, now headed to Gov. Jay Nixon, is too restrictive.
"This clearly is not a pro-marijuana bill," Schaefer said.