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Federal Government to legalise growing of medicinal cannabis


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The Federal Government has announced it will legalise the growing of cannabis for medicinal purposes.

 

Health Minister Sussan Ley said the Government wants to give people suffering from debilitating illnesses access to the most effective medical treatments.

She said she had been moved by stories of people who got some relief from medicinal cannabis, sometimes legally imported but not always.

"I have heard stories of patients who have resorted to illegal methods of obtaining cannabis and I have felt for them, because with a terminal condition, the most important thing is quality of life and relief of pain," she told AM.

"And we know that many people are calling out for medicinal cannabis.

"It is important therefore that we recognise those calls for help, that we put in place what we know will support a safe, legal and sustainable supply of a product."

The Government intends to amend the Narcotic Drugs Act to allow cannabis to be grown for medicine or science and ensure that Australia is not in breach of international drug treaties.

 

Ms Ley said it would allow cultivation similar to the way Tasmania has grown opium poppies for the world's morphine market.

She said it is possible a medicinal cannabis industry could flourish.

"It is, and that is something that some state governments I am sure will be interested in," Ms Ley said.

"You can import the product from overseas, but it is almost impossible because the demand in, for example Europe, is very high and the cost is very high too.

"So I don't want to place these difficulties in the way of patients who are terminally ill who may be able to get relief from medicinal cannabis."

Campaign groups cautiously optimistic

Sussan Ley said the legalisation was only about medicinal cannabis not recreational use.

"This is not a debate about legalisation of cannabis. This is not about drugs. This is not a product you smoke. This has nothing to do with that," she said.

"Most commonly the product is an oil or a tincture that you put on your skin."

Advocates of medicinal cannabis have cautiously welcomed the Federal Government's plan to allow the drug to be cultivated.

Lucy Haslem set up campaign group United in Compassion after her son used medicinal cannabis during his battle with terminal cancer.

She said she was grateful that politicians were starting to get onboard but that the devil would be in the detail.

"I hope what they're announcing today will be meaningful in terms of getting medicine into the hands of patients in a timely fashion," she said.

"I'm hoping that it will involve some sort of medical amnesty which could happen immediately but I guess I'm waiting to see the finer detail."

Ms Haslem said she hoped there would be no further delay before patients are able to access the drug legally.

"I hope that medicinal cannabis will be provided from within Australia. I think there's great scope for the development of a new industry," she said.

"I hope that patients with numerous serious illnesses and conditions have access to it ... I hope that we're not waiting another year or two for this to be set in motion."

Opposition pushing for nationwide scheme

The Federal Opposition has also announced it would move to legalise medicinal cannabis.

But while the Government will leave it up to the states to decide if they want to allow the drug to be grown, the shadow assistant Health Minister, Stephen Jones, said Labor would have a nationally consistent scheme.

"A truly national scheme to make medicinal cannabis available," Mr Jones said.

"It should not be a matter of whether you live in New South Wales or Victoria or somewhere else in Australia.

"If you are suffering from a terminal, if your child has drug resistant epilepsy suffering from life threatening fits, then you should have available to you through medical advice and appropriate channels, medicinal cannabis."

Several states have already announced clinical trials for medicinal cannabis, but until the change is made they have not been able to legally grow the crop.

The NSW Government has committed $9 million for clinical trials and up to $12 million to set up a Centre for Medicinal Cannabis Research and Innovation.

 

Stolen from: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-17/federal-government-to-legalise-growing-of-medicinal-cannabis/6862294

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Well, finally, they are talking about it publicly, but that's just the start. Let's see how long the talkfest takes from here. Let's see if its all restricted to pharma derived concoctions.

 

BIG thanks to Lucy Haslam for pushing this despite that fact that her son Dan has passed away. Although Dan is not here Lucy has maintained her involvement and has pushed for legalisation on compassionate grounds. This has allowed the idea of 'Dope smoking hippies' to be partially diluted. We still have the hardliners who see Canna as a gateway to heroin, but if the more moderates of our system can see that the correlation of canna to hammer is crap, we might have a chance. I never thought I'd see it in my lifetime, but maybe, just maybe.....

 

So, yes, they've made a start, now lets see where it goes and how long it takes to get there.

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Well, finally, they are talking about it publicly, but that's just the start. Let's see how long the talkfest takes from here. Let's see if its all restricted to pharma derived concoctions.

 

BIG thanks to Lucy Haslam for pushing this despite that fact that her son Dan has passed away. Although Dan is not here Lucy has maintained her involvement and has pushed for legalisation on compassionate grounds. This has allowed the idea of 'Dope smoking hippies' to be partially diluted. We still have the hardliners who see Canna as a gateway to heroin, but if the more moderates of our system can see that the correlation of canna to hammer is crap, we might have a chance. I never thought I'd see it in my lifetime, but maybe, just maybe.....

 

So, yes, they've made a start, now lets see where it goes and how long it takes to get there.

I think Lucy is keen to see canna exploited for all its worth. I could almost guarantee  the first clinic they set up wont have anything to do with big pharma. It will be a local regulator and producer of Pharmacutical grade Cannabis Oil.

Australias Isolation and being treated globally as a second thought just became our best friend, Australia will probably lead the way. our medicical reasearch is usually second to none. In my proffesion I rank in the top 2% on the planet.

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Hey Canna, Top 2%? Then for fark sake get ya shit together and get it going lol lol lol (p.s. That was a joke lol )

 

I honestly think Razz has a very valid point too. The people lucky enuf to be in the 'trials' will get the benefit, but what happens from there. Big pharma will be waiting for ANY opportunity to enter the market. And if they do get the opportunity they will render it down to a specific component, patent it and we'll all be in the shit then. All home grows will be jail time if big pharma gets involved.

I've been participating in a hospital run 'Pain Clinic'. One person mentioned canna in an open forum and the session was shutdown quick smart. We were told "...we are not here to discuss illegal substances...". HELL IF THEY WORK WHO GIVES A TOSS!!! So the govt is talking about 'strategies' and that could lead us to......CHRIST KNOWS!!!! It could be good, hell it could be fantastic BUT that also means it could be bad or it could be fucking Terrible.

 

Now this may sound all 'doom and gloom', but lets be honest we really don't know at this point. And with govt being govt the whole process could be bogged down in Senate hearings and inquiries for the next 20yrs (Now that is a gloomy outlook lol )

 

Let's see what happens.

They've only just started publicly talking about it. IMO We've got a long, long way to go yet.

 

Merl1n

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