It’s all talk and no action on medicinal cannabis

The Government’s embracing of cannabis as the great green hope for our farmers is a classic case of framing themselves as helping make something evil turn into good. But all is not as it seems.

cannabis plant for medicinal cannabis column by Jane Fynes Clinton

The Government’s embracing of cannabis as the great green hope for our farmers is a classic case of framing themselves as helping make something evil turn into good.

As always, all is not as it seems.

So far, it means nothing for most and only offers a thread of hope for a chosen few.

These steps are more like marching on the spot than moving forward. At a distance, it looks effective, but in reality it is all just for show.

And what a show governments have put on: there was a sparkly announcement last year that the Queensland Government would be involved in a single trial of testing the efficacy of medicinal cannabis on children with severe epilepsy. Then the Federal Government said it would take steps to decriminalise the growing of the wonder plant for medical purposes.

Now the state says our laws, if and when they are eventually drafted, debated, voted on and enacted, will be the most progressive in the country and will open new industries and help the sick and dying.

But so far — nothing.

It smacks of 2003, when then NSW premier Bob Carr and then PM John Howard announced four years of medicinal cannabis clinical trials. They never happened.

Importantly, nothing has changed for the many already using medicinal cannabis oil and spray. No lifeline has been extended, no amnesty offered to create secure and legal lines of supply during the many years it will take for the tiniest changes to be made.

Pertinently, the talk around medicinal cannabis has all been around working with pharmaceutical companies.

This is a product that already has experts making it. It is already helping those willing to step outside the law.

And it is most effective when as close to its natural state as possible — no pill press, boxing conveyor belt or assembly line required.

All the Government needs to do is to legitimise and embrace the covert industry and its knowledge, not focus solely on legislation and economy ahead of health.

Last month, in response to a parliamentary e-petition to change the law to free up access to medicinal cannabis for those who need it now, Health Minister Cameron Dick reiterated that cannabis in all forms is illegal.

Cameron Dick would like to remind everyone that cannabis in all its forms is illegal. (Pic: Liam Kidston)

The Government is therefore being churlish and misleading in saying that they want to make medicinal cannabis available to more sick people. They could do that now, but they haven’t.

And they are wrong in indicating that the move on Tuesday will legally put medicinal cannabis under the tongues of Queenslanders who are sick or dying: the only thing it changes is that it lays out a possible legal route in which the state’s chief medical officer can give permission to individuals to be part of specific clinical trials.

That will not change the status quo — and too bad for the dying, who do not have time to wait for the world to change.

Dick said individuals who wanted to access medicinal cannabis now could apply to the Federal Government’s Therapeutic Goods Administration under its Special Access Scheme.

Just how many people have done that and how many were approved is unknown, but I would wager the answer is none.

The healing properties within the cannabis plant have been embraced for thousands of years. It has forever been food, clothing and medicine. The Declaration of Independence was drafted on hemp paper and early American flags were made from hemp cloth.

Its status was changed by magicians who turned the life-giving wonder plant into a demonic danger right before the public’s eyes 100 years ago.

We were all robbed of nature’s nutritious, healing gift, in all its forms.

I bought some hulled hemp seed at a natural food store the other day. Hemp seed is a complete vegetable protein, perfect for an active person like me.

Stuck on the front of the packaging is a warning that hemp seed has not been approved for human consumption in Australia and New Zealand.

We are islands in this — the rest of the world uses it as a key food for exercisers.

More action and less talk is required. We must shift out thinking, offer an amnesty to those already making medicinal cannabis and those who will use it before any legislative wheels might start turning. Medicinal cannabis can do no harm.

And we must have legal steps that make medicinal cannabis available to more than just a handful on a specific clinical trial.

Otherwise, the Government must stop hinting that medicinal cannabis will be Queensland farmers’ saving grace and broad hope for the sick and dying and, instead, be honest about it being pharmaceutical companies’ future new cash cow.

Jane Fynes-Clinton is a Queensland-based journalist.

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