Republican Gov. Chris Christie will decide whether New Jersey residents with post-traumatic stress disorder can be treated with medical marijuana after lawmakers approved a measure Monday.

The state Senate on Monday approved the measure previously approved by the Assembly that allows marijuana to be used to treat PTSD - if it’s not treatable with conventional therapy.

Lawmakers say the measure is meant to help military veterans diagnosed with PTSD.

Lacey resident Linda Schroeck-Connors keeps passing out.

It has happened at the Ocean County Mall and ShopRiite, resulting in trips to the emergency room. She has lost consciousness many times at home, and has a service dog, Venus, to warn her when an attack is on the way.

"This week alone, I have had five seizures," said Schroeck-Connors in a recent email. "I'm home alone all day and it's a very scary thing."

Schroeck has epilepsy. And recently her doctor had a potential solution to her problem: medicinal marijuana. A bureaucratic snafu kept her from getting an identification card from the New Jersey Medicinal Marijuana Program until Press on Your Side got involved.

The state Department of Health wants to hear from the public about illnesses and conditions that should be added to the eligibility list for medical marijuana.

That sounds reasonable enough, we’re just not sure why officials are bothering with this process, which involves completion of a three-page petition detailing other available treatments for targeted illnesses and documentation from physicians about the potential benefits of cannabis.

The Assembly has passed legislation that would allow qualified New Jersey residents with post-traumatic stress disorder to get medical marijuana treatment.

The Democrat-led Assembly voted 55-14, with seven abstentions on Thursday. The bill heads to the Senate for consideration.

The legislation approves the disorder for treatment with marijuana only if it’s not treatable with conventional therapy.

Marijuana is currently approved in New Jersey to treat multiple sclerosis, terminal cancer and muscular dystrophy, among other medical diseases. It’s also approved for seizures and glaucoma if those conditions are resistant to conventional treatment.

New Jersey could raise at least $300 million a year by regulating and taxing legal pot, according to a recent report by New Jersey Policy Perspective and New Jersey United for Marijuana Reform.

Sen. Nicholas Scutari is an enthusiastic proponent of the full legalization of recreational marijuana in New Jersey, even more so after a recent fact-finding tour of Colorado, where pot has already been legal for more than two years.

All jokes aside about what Scutari was doing out in Colorado — he says he did not partake — the senator was so inspired by the trip that he says he now plans to restructure an earlier legalization proposal in hopes of sparking more Statehouse interest.

Philadelphia thought it was pretty darn progressive by decriminalizing marijuana in 2014, but if one New Jersey lawmaker has his way, Atlantic City could one-up Philly by becoming an all out marijuana tourism destination like Vancouver, Denver, Seattle and Amsterdam.

A state senator who wants New Jersey to legalize, regulate and tax marijuana for recreational use returned this week feeling good after a fact-finding visit to Colorado.

Sen. Nicholas Scutari, D-Union, didn’t try the product. But he’s more convinced than before that New Jersey should legalize pot after experiencing how legalization has positively impacted Colorado’s economy, tax revenues and crime rates.

“Change is always difficult. Do I see it as an uphill fight? Yeah, it’s an uphill fight,” Scutari said. “But it’s changing. It’s not as uphill as when I stood here two years ago and told you that I wanted to legalize marijuana. We’re in a lot better position now. And I’ll tell you what: I feel a lot more comfortable doing it now that I’ve seen a really good industry.”

As many as 10 states could join Colorado, Alaska, Washington, Washington, D.C., Oregon and legalize recreational marijuana this year. On Tuesday, a New Jersey lawmaker will hold a press conference Tuesday to discuss how a similar law might work here. Still, it's a safe bet legalization remains a long way off in the Garden State.

Here's a look at what likely needs to happen for New Jersey to legalize recreational pot.

1. Elect a new governor.

New Jersey’s medical marijuana program has a very restrictive list of qualifying conditions, but AB 457 would help change that by adding PTSD. The bill was just released from committee, which voted 3-0 in support. Please contact your Assembly members and ask them to support compassionate access for these patients.

Assemblyman Vince Mazzeo (D-Atlantic), who sponsored the bill, noted that veterans are the people who most often suffer fromPTSD, and that for many veterans, medical marijuana is “the only [drug] to provide veterans with significant relief from the anxiety associated with PTSD.”

“Look at me. I’m a regular mom. Average looking,” Jessie Gill wrote in an essay for Redbook. “You’d never think anything was wrong with me. But the truth is every single day, I battle with excruciating pain. And because of my disability, my family suffers. To manage that pain — and that suffering — I use medical marijuana.”