Public Health (Medicinal Cannabis) Bill 2016

[MongyMan]

Medical Cannabis Advisory Group QLD

 

REMINDER - PUBLIC SUBMISSIONS DUE 11 JULY

Public Health (Medicinal Cannabis) Bill 2016

Please have your say and let the Queensland government know that this Bill gives excessive power to the Director General of Health over doctors in Queensland on whether or not a doctor can treat their patients with cannabis, even when the doctor has TGA treatment approval.

Although there will be a separate prescribing class for specialists who have undergone training and who will only need to be approved initially, the Director General wants to limit this to specialists in peadiatric neurology, pallative care and oncology to begin with.

Pain, rheumatologists and other specialists may need to wait for years before they have the right to treat their patients without having to get approval from the Director General.

Whereas doctors can now prescribe any other Schedule 8 opiate without approval, and are only required to notify Queensland Health if treatment will be for more than 3 months - under the BIll cannabis patients are going to be put in a similar category to how drug dependent patients are classifed now under the Health (Drugs and Poisons) Regulation, as doctors will need to apply for a treatment approval for each patient.

The law should not come between the doctor patient relationship. A doctor should only have to notify the Director General if they are treating an adult patient with cannabis, and should only need to apply for an approval for patients under 16, or possibly if there is a history of doctor shopping.

In addition this Bill will give the Director General the power to have up to 90 days to make a decision which is inconsistent with fundamental legislative principles, and just plain unconscionable for the Director General to have the power to make any patient wait more than one day for pain relief, let alone 3 months as he did with Lindsay!!

Please let the Queensland Government know that more needs to be done for patients, especially approvals to be exempt from criminal prosecution for patients who are already saving the state money by growing their own cannabis and who are not selling it.

We also need state approvals and licences for not for profits, cooperatives and for the business sector who only want to supply cannabis to patients within Queensland, as the Commonwealth scheme is only suitable for large corporations and could take 5 -10 years before products are available.

Queensland business have also been put at a very big disadvantage as a number of NSW business were given licences before the federal law was passed in February so they are already underway in NSW, and Victoria has also started state cultivation.

Queensland patients should be able to have access to cannabis that has been locally made here in Queensland, it should be available in their local communities. Patients should not have to rely on expensive cannabis from interstate or overseas and companies seeking to make huge profits or from criminals who don't pay taxes. https://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/work-of-committees/committees/HCDSDFVPC/inquiries/current-inquiries/PH-MedicinalCannibas-Bill2016