Page 3814 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 25 September 2019
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there is. People who deny that and say, “Oh, look, the evidence is ambiguous; the evidence is not clear,” are in that anti-vaxxer camp. Let me be very clear. There is a significant mental health impact. If you have used cannabis, the risks are there. I am going to believe the AMA. I am going to believe the experts, even if some of those opposite choose not to.
Let me report from a USA Today report that shows the real evidence from Colorado. Colorado is a state in the US that has legalised cannabis. The report stated that a new study showed that hospital visits related to cannabis drastically increased after Colorado legalised recreational marijuana. University of Colorado School of Medicine researchers reviewed the health records of 9,973 patients at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital from 2012 to 2016. They found a more than threefold increase in cannabis-associated emergency department visits.
According to a study published in the peer-reviewed journal Annals of Internal Medicine, some patients reported eating edibles but the majority of cases were related to inhaled marijuana, according to the study funded by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, with symptoms including uncontrollable vomiting, acute psychosis, intoxication and heart problems.
I can refer to numerous studies. That is one of the more recent that talks about the impacts on mental health of cannabis use and where the legalisation of cannabis has led to increased health problems within a community. That is why the AMA’s opposition to this legislation is so important for us to note. Let us listen to the evidence. As the Greens often lecture us, let us listen to the evidence.
We will be facing competing amendments today. There is no doubt that there are some good amendments and some bad amendments being put forward. We will go through those in detail. But let me clarify, before we go to the detail stage, where we are at on this. Following the committee inquiry, the government has recognised that there are a range of significant issues with this legislation. They include the ability for a grow house to exist, the number of plants per individual and a range of technical legal issues that arise out of this legislation. They have put forward amendments that we are either ambivalent about or that by and large we support, because I think what they do is make bad legislation better. It still remains bad legislation, but it is not as bad as was first presented in this place.
The Greens have a range of amendments as well. I indicate that we will be supporting a couple of them in relation to reviews and the provision of information that I think are sensible. The remainder of their amendments, by and large, would increase the scope of the legalisation of marijuana, the hydroponics and so on. These are things that we would not support, and therefore we will not be supporting those amendments.
Be very clear about the process today: we will be opposing this legislation, for the reasons that I have outlined. Nothing has changed since we had the debate in this place some months ago. Opposition has, if anything, become stronger, given the evidence presented at the committee inquiry. We will support a number of amendments—those amendments that we think limit the damage that is going to be done by this legislation.
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