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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 6 Hansard (17 June) . . Page.. 1680 ..

MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! It being 5.00 pm, I propose the question:

That the Assembly do now adjourn.

Mrs Carnell: I require the question to be put forthwith without debate.

Question resolved in the negative.

Debate resumed.

MRS CARNELL: I understand that the paper I was just talking about will make reference to expert opinion which has been sought from such bodies as the Royal Australasian College of Physicians on current accepted medical treatments for conditions for which marijuana is purported to have some value. This includes best practice for the treatment of such things as Mr Moore has spoken about already, such as weight loss and other symptoms associated with AIDS and HIV, movement disorders in multiple sclerosis, nausea associated with chemotherapy, and the list goes on.

I am also advised that, as part of the research for the Ministerial Council on Drug Strategy paper, the South Australian Drug and Alcohol Services Council has conducted a national survey of doctors working in the HIV/AIDS area to ascertain their knowledge and experience of the synthetic cannabinoid derivative dronabinol, which is currently being trialled in Australia as a treatment for HIV/AIDS-related wasting. The Ministerial Council on Drug Strategy will also receive expert advice from the Royal Australasian College of Physicians on current best practice in the treatment of glaucoma - another area for which cannabis can be of some use.

The matter of public importance is not about our accepting this; it is about the use of cannabis. It is about what we are doing as a whole. All that Mr Berry could do was get up and talk about an open slather on drugs, saying that any debate that we have in this place is not worth anything because there has to be a national approach. Mr Berry, as somebody who was a Health Minister, should have known that drug law is actually a State issue. It is not a national issue; it is a State issue. It is something that needs to be debated in this place. It needs to be legislated in this place.

Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, I understand that the MCDS paper will also make reference to a report that will be released by the United States National Institute of Health on the therapeutic uses of cannabis. That is not exactly a lightweight body. It would be appropriate to consider this issue, I believe, after we have that paper. I think it would be a useful time to have another debate in this place; not wait for any national decision,

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