Earlier this year a NSW cross-party parliamentary committee put forth the recommendation that marijuana use be legalised for people suffering through terminal illnesses, like cancer or AIDS.
In response the Government has today rejected the recommendation and ruled out approving medical weed, because apparently there is limited evidence on the effectiveness of cannabis for pain relief.
The report put together on ‘The use of cannabis for medical purposes’ suggests that, with ‘appropriate safeguards in place’, cannabis products are ‘emerging as a promise area of medicine, most notably in respect of a number of painful conditions that do not respond to existing treatments.’ Researchers also maintain that “pharmaceutical preparations of cannabis extracts on the other hand can be delivered safely…thereby reducing the harm potential both to the user and the wider society.”
Professor Mather surmised that medical blunts could be administered for the following conditions:
. Control of nausea/vomiting (e.g. from cancer chemotherapy)
. Appetite stimulation (e.g. in patients with HIV-related wasting syndrome)
. Control of muscle spasticity (e.g. from multiple sclerosis and spinal cord injury)
. Pain management (e.g. for neuropathic pain, and possibly anti-inflammatory
treatment)
. Anti-convulsant effects (e.g. from epilepsy)
. Bronchodilation (asthma treatment).
Greens MP John Kaye has called the decision ‘narrow-minded’ – “I’m deeply disappointed that the O’Farrell Government has buckled to cannabis use hysteria when they had a perfect opportunity to bring some relief to the pain and suffering of terminally-ill patients,” he said.
Professor Mather also suggested that this pharmaceutical ‘be introduced under controlled conditions with data collection by an appropriate regulation agency’. They really could at least run a trial…
Former state Labor MP Paul O’Grady, commented that the government should consider a trial: “Good public policy should be based on evidence, you need in my view, to have trials of these sorts of things so that you can develop the evidence,” he said.
The NSW Labor frontbencher who initiated the inquiry, Luke Foley, has said of the decision that “As members of parliament we need to be guided by facts and evidence rather than slogans and hysteria. We should be guided by the experts – by clinicians on the medical issues and lawyers on the legal issues.”
In the end though, our government is a square and has decided that NSW do not have power to effect changes to federal laws or to pass policy that directly contravenes with the Therapeutic Goods Administration’s drug regulations. 420 hate it.
via Yahoo and The Australian
