Page 2815 - Week 09 - Thursday, 13 August 2015
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The committee supports a national approach to medicinal cannabis, suggesting that state, territory and commonwealth governments work together on advancing a national scheme as well as clinical trials of cannabis-based pharmaceutical products and crude cannabis. I also draw the Assembly’s attention to the recent tabling in the Senate of the standing committee on legal and constitutional affairs report on the Regulator of Medicinal Cannabis Bill 2014, which also supports that approach.
The committee also made recommendations which included support for medical research on cannabis and cannabis products as well as on access to cannabis-derived or synthesised pharmaceutical products. The committee has outlined a number of features that it felt should form part of any medicinal cannabis scheme, including the use of government-sourced or controlled cannabis, the issuing of a prescription from a medical practitioner, and ongoing education and training for medical practitioners and the community.
The committee recommends that if the ACT government acts independently of the commonwealth or other state and territory jurisdictions on a medicinal cannabis scheme it needs to address the regulatory concerns raised in this report.
I thank my fellow members of the committee—Mr Andrew Wall MLA, deputy chair, Ms Nicole Lawder MLA and Ms Meegan Fitzharris MLA, as well as Ms Yvette Berry MLA, who was a member of this committee during the initial period of the inquiry. I appreciate their diligence and fulsome cooperation in the inquiry and their work towards the consensus which the committee reached on this potentially divisive topic. I thank the secretary of the committee, Nicola Kosseck, for her insights and fine work in bringing this report to fruition.
I appreciated hearing from the witnesses who gave evidence, and especially those who shared their heart-wrenching stories of struggling to find relief for conditions where conventional drugs and therapies have failed or were simply inadequate. Some had resorted to use of cannabis for medicinal purposes and found some relief. Others wished to try it but did not want to break the law or use a drug where there is much contradictory medical and anecdotal evidence.
The evidence presented to the committee does suggest that cannabis has medical potential, and the ACT should therefore look further into those regulations, costs and medical trials needed to progress a medicinal cannabis scheme. However, the committee recommended, as I said, that the government reject the draft bill.
We heard from a number of witnesses, including the Chief Police Officer, who spoke frankly of the dangers of an unregulated, essentially unpoliceable, regime as presented in the draft bill. As I said, whilst we support those compassionate principles for those who are terminally ill or have serious medical conditions, we need a proper regulatory framework.
I note that this has been a long and hard piece of work for the committee. I thank all those involved who have given us a way forward, and particularly the recommendations that I have mentioned already from the Senate standing committee,
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