High As Mike documentary puts out the call to fix Australia’s medicinal cannabis legislation

Olivia Newton-John is among its high-profile supporters calling for changes to medicinal cannabis legislation in the Australian documentary High As Mike.

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A new Australian documentary High As Mike - that has led to fresh calls to overhaul Australia’s medicinal cannabis legislation and won the celebrity backing of Olivia Newton-John - is screening at Dendy Newtown on July 3.

The documentary follows Tamworth long-distance cyclist Mike Gallagher’s year-long battle to find a GP in Australia to prescribe legal medicinal cannabis to treat an incurable and debilitating brain tumour.

Olivia Newton-John and husband, founder and chairman of Amazon Herb Company John Easterling in High As Mike.

On this journey he chats with patients that have embarked on the same life-changing journey, including cancer survivor Newton-John, who said she used medicinal cannabis “to help with my pain and discomfort ... it’s been a total blessing”.

”It’s really helped me in so many ways,” she said. “I sleep much better, my pain level is better ... it’s really changed my life and I’m incredibly grateful for it,” she said.

The documentary reveals patient testimonies with a broad range of medical conditions from epileptic children to multiple sclerosis

Gallagher also has discussions with politicians, doctors, lawyers, licensed growers and black market operators as he struggling to make sense of current rules and regulations.

DC Stories, the collaborative venture between producers Peter Cross, Daniel Raffaele and Craig Wilson, is the creative talent behind the documentary..

“Our goal for this documentary is to inform and vastly improve access to medicinal cannabis to patients across Australia,” Cross said.

Mike Gallagher in the Australian documentary High As Mike.

On the legal restrictions and complex legislation, Australian Greens leader Richard Di Natalie said: “We have a whole lot of hurdles that shouldn’t exist, that don’t exist for other drugs”.

KEY FACTS FROM THE DOCUMENTARY-MAKERS

• This is not an activist film… it is not to be portrayed as an activist film. It is factual, unbiased, educational and informative.

• There is an estimated 1,000,000 Australian patients that are accessing medicinal cannabis

but only 4,000 legal applications in the country, of that, only around 1500 successfully legal

patients prescribed. This startling fact highlights that the black market is still king for proven

pain relief.

• Research is being conducted into CBD for its potential to treat: Epilepsy, schizophrenia and

other psychotic disorders, type 2 diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, some tumours and

drug dependency – Alcohol and Drug Foundation