HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - After an emotionally charged debate, Pennsylvania state senators overwhelmingly passed legislation Wednesday to legalize several forms of medical marijuana, although the legislative session is growing short, House Republican leaders are skeptical of the bill and Gov. Tom Corbett opposes it.

Although supporters of the bill viewed the vote as historic, Pennsylvania is behind other states: More than 30 others already have legalized some form of medical marijuana, according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

After 50 minutes of debate, every Democrat voted "yes," as did 20 of 27 Republicans. Several "yes" votes came from senators who have law-enforcement backgrounds.

Under the proposal, state residents would need an access card from the Health Department after proving they have a practitioner-patient relationship and written confirmation of a qualifying medical condition. A handful of drug delivery methods that do not involve smoking it would be permitted under the bill, including extracted oil, edible products, ointments and tinctures.

The chamber's debate had been propelled by parents who believe a marijuana oil extract can help their children who suffer from seizures so debilitating that they worry about whether their child will survive another day. But proponents talked about the wider possibilities it has for treatment of other people, such as veterans suffering post-traumatic stress disorder.

"It is cruel and heartless to deny people the best medicine that is available," Sen. Daylin Leach, D-Montgomery, said during floor debate. "And it's time to stop treating this irrationally and saying, 'we're not going to let you have this, we're going to instead make you take far more dangerous and less effective drugs.' That's just not how we would want to be treated; it's not how we want our families to be treated."

However, the bill would make forms of medical marijuana more widely available than Corbett - the state's former attorney general - has said he would allow.

Opponents of the bill sought unsuccessfully to change it to bring it more into line with what Corbett has said he would support, namely, making treatment available just to children prone to seizures and administered by certain specialists, while the potential medical benefits of medical marijuana is studied by experts.

Corbett's Democratic challenger in the Nov. 4 election, Tom Wolf, supports the legalization of medical marijuana.

Sen. Lloyd Smucker, R-Lancaster, said the bill amounts to "setting state medical policy by opinion poll," rather than by the advice of medical experts. He also suggested that it would make it harder to keep marijuana out of kids' hands.

Meanwhile, Sen. Pat Vance, R-Cumberland, warned that the rejected amendment would have sped treatment to seizure-prone children, while the legislation requires time-consuming processes, such as growing and testing the marijuana, that could delay treatment for a year or two.

Under the bill, a State Board of Medical Cannabis Licensing would be appointed by the governor to regulate the licensing and inspection of growers, processors and dispensers.

Qualifying medical conditions include cancer, epilepsy and seizures, Lou Gehrig's disease, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, post-traumatic stress disorder, spinocerebellar ataxia, severe fibromyalgia, wasting syndrome and traumatic brain injury and post-concussion syndrome.

The state board would have the authority to expand the list.

The House of Representatives has just six session days left before the Nov. 30 expiration of the legislative session. Leaders of the Republican majority there note that federal law still prohibits medical marijuana and say the U.S. Food and Drug Administration should take the lead on any change in drug policy.