pick item from list at random, each has different chance

I wanted to write a simple function that allows to roll random item from list, i did it with this code:

this.resources = [false, 'nitrogen', 'silicon', 'cobalt', 'magnesium'];

this.assign_resource = function() {
    var index = tools.rnd(0, this.resources.length - 1);
    return this.resources[index];
};

But it doesn't play well, so i wanted to change it to different system that allows a list of items (including empty one) and it picks one at random but each one has different chance (for example this one has 10%, this one has 20%). Maybe someone could help me with this kind of function.