In a move being heralded as “incredibly sick” and “wildly chill”, Victoria has become the first state in Australia to legalise medicinal weed.
Thanks to federal laws blocking the import of marijuana it means that soon Victoria is going to start growing its own weed, which will be used to treat things like cancer, HIV/AIDS, glaucoma and Parkinson’s.
The very fittingly named “Access to Medicinal Cannabis Bill 2015” covers the legalisation of the devil’s oregano for medical purposes, the training that’s involved in telling doctors what they should be prescribing it for and research into “possible expansion of patient eligibility” which hopefully means weed for everyone all the time.
The bill was pushed through by Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews who made it one of his major promises pre-election, and he’s pretty stoked about it:
First state in Australia. History made. #auspol #springst pic.twitter.com/lULuJdlb04
— Daniel Andrews (@DanielAndrewsMP) April 12, 2016
While not exactly the level of legalisation countries like the US are enjoying, it at least signals the start of a change in mindset from “weed is turning our kids into axe murdering communists” to “it turns out it’s not so bad”.
High priority cases, such as kids with severe epilepsy, could start receiving Victoria’s very own homegrown weed as soon as 2017.
Source: Premier of Victoria.
Photo: Getty Images / Colin Robertson.
