Sellers and consultants say the industry is banking on future growth.

The bill would allow children and certain adults with severe illnesses -- more restrictive than a different proposal that has stalled in the House -- to ingest and vaporize marijuana as part of clinical trials. The Senate version, which has been moving with more force, is more permissive. The proposals will travel in earnest on Friday into next week.

Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk explained that the Senate’s quickened pace came at Dayton’s urging. “The governor, probably about two weeks ago, actually asked the Legislature to move on the bill,” Bakk said. “I guess, at his request, we thought we would show him that courtesy.”

Though legislators have already passed $443 million in tax cuts, they're still wrangling over the differences between two bills that would provide roughly $100 million in additional tax relief. The House has passed $323 in new spending, which must be meshed with a $210 million bill from the Senate.

When a bipartisan group of legislators threw a medical marijuana bill into the hopper during the last month of the 2013 legislative session, it wasn’t intended as an 11th-hour bargaining chip. Anticipating a short session in 2014, advocates said they were trying to set the stage for convincing lawmakers that they should join a growing list of states that allow patients to use the drug to alleviate pain.

DFL Rep. Carly Melin Advocates of legalizing marijuana use for medicinal purposes claim that they have 40 co-sponsors for legislation that will be introduced on Thursday.