Page 2819 - Week 09 - Thursday, 13 August 2015
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Health professionals want a more scientific approach. Some, I believe, may set their bar too high and this is where a trial like that about to get underway in New South Wales is valuable. I do not think trials are a cop-out. They should go down the path to developing a safe and consistent pharmaceutical product. It is clear to me that the illegality of cannabis has prevented proper research. We must find a way to change this. Drugs save lives, and although not part of the evidence to the committee, my reading of community debate is that sometimes we can be complacent about the research and development and effectiveness of pharmaceutical products in this country, as we have seen tragically recently around the debate on childhood immunisation and preventable deaths from whooping cough.
It is an irony—if it was not so serious it might be amusing—that many of the fiercest proponents of a science-based approach to climate change, for example, with whom I totally agree, do not find the same strength in their arguments on pharmaceutical products, for example, like vaccinations. I want to see the long-term goal of cannabis-based products that are rigorously researched and tested and become part of mainstream research.
Patients and those in pain and their families deserve treatments that are reliable, safe and proven. They need to know, especially if it is children. I acknowledge that it is a long way away, and if it were my child I am sure I would struggle with that wait. But progress is made in stages. Unfortunately, it was clear for me and the committee that the thresholds we were asked to weigh up, the action we were asked to consider, could not be crossed.
I want to thank again everyone involved, especially Mr Rattenbury for bringing this bill to the Assembly. It has started the conversation, one that is now national and widespread. I believe we have crossed the Rubicon on this issue; there is no going back from the genuine recognition that cannabis-based products can relieve enormous suffering, but the risk to users and the risk to our community, the imperfections, are too high to endorse this bill.
As the committee notes, we recommend the ACT government write to the commonwealth minister requesting further support is provided for affordability and access to Sativex and Marinol for more patients and for more guidance to medical practitioners. We recommend the poisons standard be amended to facilitate medical and scientific research into medicinal cannabis. We recommend the ACT government work with all other states and territories on further clinical trials, and I will be very interested to follow the New South Wales trial. We also encourage the government to work to make sure there are ACT patients who can access the trial if possible.
We also outline a number of significant regulatory concerns raised in this report. There are no simple answers to any of these concerns, most especially around supply but we must take these seriously and act with compassion in our hearts and our minds on the realities of a scheme that will work. Unfortunately, this bill did not get us there, but I am sure a national approach will. We should play an active role in this.
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