The Australian government on Saturday announced plans to allow cannabis to be legally grown for medical and scientific purposes, the media reported.
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Ms Ley said the government is sympathetic to the suffering of those with debilitating illnesses.
However, the Greens leader Richard Di Natale has pointed out that the federal government announcement has only spoken about allowing farmers to grow medicinal cannabis but nothing about the distribution of the drug and how it would be accessed by the patients who need it.
Australian manufacturers, researchers and patients now have to access global supplies of legal medicinal marijuana, with cost, limited supply and export barriers making this challenging.
Ms Ley said the changes will deliver a safe, legal and sustainable supply of locally produced product for the first time.
In Australia, Provision of legal cannabis to treat medical conditions appears to have broad community support.
An ACT government spokesman said the federal green light to allow for the cultivation was a long-term sticking point. Under Australian law, decriminalization and medical trials come under state government jurisdiction.
Ms Ley said the Government’s draft amendments would address structural issues identified in the proposed cross-party bill by a recent Senate committee report and hoped they would help progress the matter through Parliament. A final version will go before the parliament by the end of the year.
Medicinal cannabis has been used relieve pain for patients with a terminal illness, alleviate nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy and control epileptic seizures.
The NSW government also plans to follow the footsteps of Victoria in legalising medicinal marijuana after committing $9 million in funding for approved clinical trials at earlier this year along with another $12 million for an global Centre for Medicinal Cannabis Research and Innovation.
Allowing for the controlled cultivation of marijuana in Australia will provide the critical “missing piece” where laws already exist to license the manufacture and supply of medicinal cannabis-based products, but local production of the crop remains forbidden, Ley said.
Ley said that she was still finalising changes to the Narcotics Drugs Act but new cannabis products would still be regulated by The Therapeutic Goods Administration.
Ley made clear though that the move did not mean legal recreational use of the drug was any closer.
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“Federal laws have always prevented the ACT from setting up a formal model for cultivation and supply of medicinal cannabis”, he said. She will meet with state and territory health ministers in November to discuss how the changes will work.
