Page 4474 - Week 14 - Thursday, 1 December 1994
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Mr Moore: They do.
MR CONNOLLY: Mr Moore says that they do. I table the statement yesterday from the general manager. I will read this to you again slowly. I will read the whole thing. I quote:
As you will notice from today's press release, the AIDS Action Council supports legal access to cannabis for medical use.
Mrs Carnell: Yes.
MR CONNOLLY: As do I. As we said yesterday, we would be prepared to do it under the safeguards, subject to appropriate clinical safeguards. We are happy to go down that path.
Mr Moore: For synthetic - - -
MR CONNOLLY: That is what is going on through the national program. But, as I have said to you, if doctors come and see me about seeking access and permission under the Act, I would be interested in looking at those applications. I have told you that time and time again, both publicly and privately; but you went ahead with yesterday's process, which I have described as an open slather. That is the other arm of the allegation, and I think that is refuted if you carefully read that legal advice - that it is open for a doctor to prescribe cannabis, to authorise the use of cannabis, for just about anything.
Mr Humphries: But will a doctor do that?
MR CONNOLLY: Brendan Nelson says that he is worried that doctors might. Brendan Nelson said on AM this morning that there are some - - -
Mrs Carnell: What did he say would happen?
MR CONNOLLY: On the legal advice; provided the doctor noted that he had seen a paper claiming that cannabis is helpful for the cure of the common cold, and there are thousands of articles written. There are zealots for cannabis. We have been getting some absolutely whacko stuff coming through our fax machine today from some of the zealots, including the extraordinary statement that it was cannabis that was on the sponge that was used at Calvary, thus ascribing miraculous origins for cannabis. There are some whacko claims about cannabis, so you do not have to look very far for a piece of paper about cannabis. I am not saying that in jest, because that is what was faxed through to my office today. (Extension of time granted) Thank you, members. That refutes part one of the claim.
I table the statement from the AIDS Action Council. While this is not entirely in accordance with the forms of the house, as you are all sitting there in judgment of me, about to press the button on the trapdoor, it would be useful if you read this statement before you leapt to a conclusion. Mr Moore accuses me of misleading the house and says that I should be dismissed as a Minister because I said that the AIDS Action Council had
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