LEGISLATION to allow medical cannabis to be grown in Australia was introduced to parliament this week and local activist Lucy Haslam is positive it will pass through smoothly.
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Once passed, a national cannabis cultivation scheme can be developed, paving the way for patients with painful and chronic conditions to access medicinal cannabis.
“Until this point, we had no way of supplying patients legally,” Mrs Haslam said.
“I’m really positive about it – it’s really easy to sit back and criticise, but the government had some complex legislation to work through.”
Health Minister Sussan Ley expected bipartisan support for the legislation and hoped it would pass both the House of Representatives and the Senate during this sitting of parliament.
Ms Ley said the legislation was the “missing piece in a patient’s journey”.
“I am confident creating one single, nationally consistent cultivation scheme – rather than eight individual arrangements – will not only help speed up the legislative and regulatory process but ultimately access to medicinal cannabis products as well,” Ms Ley said.
Mrs Haslam said people-power had played a big role in pushing the campaign along.
“I’m feeling really proud this has gone so far,” she said. “Hopefully once this is through, we are really going to see some momentum.”
Mrs Haslam said regulations surrounding the distribution of medical cannabis still had to be formed.
She doesn’t expect licences to be handed out until November at the earliest.
The NSW government is planning to consult with the commonwealth about getting started on researching different strains of medical cannabis.
“You can’t just throw seeds in the ground,” Mrs Haslam said.
“There is a lot of research that goes into it. You’ve got to grow and then clone your own strains of cannabis.”
Mrs Haslam is busy preparing for the Medicinal Cannabis Symposium in May.
She’ll also be going on a trip to Israel with NSW Premier Mike Baird to look at the country’s medical cannabis farms, technology and research.