Patients would still require either a prescription from a doctor or a clinical trial to access medicinal cannabis: “In many cases the long-term evidence is not yet complete about the ongoing use of various medicinal cannabis products and it’s therefore important we maintain the role of medical professionals to monitor and authorise its use”.
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Senator Di Natale says there is a “bottle neck” between growth and patient supply and the legislation announcement by the government does nothing to address access the drug.
The country now allows manufacture and supply of cannabis-based medicine, but there isn’t a method which enables growth of a safe and sustainable supply.
Australia’s federal government announced on Friday that it plans to overturn a ban on growing cannabis for medicinal purposes, but it will be up to individual states to legalize the herb for local medical use.
States can not grow, import or use cannabis legally – not for medical trials or any other endeavor; but if Ley’s plan of creating a regulatory body would take shape, it will add the “missing piece” of the overall puzzle.
In an official press statement Ley said: “Allowing the cultivation of legal medicinal cannabis crops in Australia under strict controls strikes the right balance between patient access, community protection and our global obligations”. The scheme will be formulated in concomitance with the state and territory laws, which will be discussed in the Council of Australian Governments’ next meeting.
“Medical cannabis is fast becoming accepted as a treatment for a variety of medical conditions around the world and the success today is an encouraging sign that investors have confidence in our strategy, technology and business model”, said Peter Wall, chairman of Phytotech, earlier this year.
The move is supported by the opposition and is likely to pass through parliament.
Victoria and NSW state governments have indicated they want to legalise medicinal cannabis, and are waiting on a federal regulatory scheme to do so.
Ley stressed that this did not in any way indicate that legal recreational marijuana use was any nearer.
He said he thought the New Zealand government was keeping a close eye on what was happening in Australia, but while he did not think it would move to duplicate the Australian law it may piggyback off it.
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Before Daniel died, Haslam’s son, he used medical cannabis as pain reliever for his terminal bowel cancer.
