Key nursing union backs medicinal cannabis 0:39
One of Australia’s largest nursing unions is supporting the use and possession of medicinal cannabis.
- Sky News
- 15 Jun 2014
- News
A DESPERATE Brisbane mum wants to give her nine-year-old daughter marijuana in a bid to stop her almost daily seizures.
Isabella Camacho has a severe form of epilepsy, Dravet syndrome, and must grapple with intense seizures that can last more than 35 minutes.
NIMBIN: Qld MP backs medical marijuana
‘LEGALISE IT’: State is country’s cannabis capital
Isabella has tried a cocktail of drugs and treatments, to little effect, and now hermum Deborah Camacho wants her to try medical cannabis. “I’m not a drug person, I’ve never taken it myself, I just want to help my little girl,” Ms Camacho said.
Preliminary overseas studies and anecdotes have indicated vast improvements in people with epilepsy treated with medical cannabis and there is a growing push for its acceptance in Australia.
Deborah Camacho wants her daughter Isabella, 9, to use cannabis to treat her Dravet syndrome. Pic: Tara Croser
Far northern MP Warren Entsch has been a supporter since he lost a family member to multiple sclerosis nine years ago. He has vowed to do everything he can to change the country’s laws.
“The only thing that could stop the horrific shakes he had no control over was marijuana,” Mr Entsch said. “If it hadn’t been for marijuana, he would have killed himself.”
Mr Entsch is in a cross-party parliamentary group on drug policy that will outline policy recommendations with the intention of legalising cannabis for medicinal use.
While Epilepsy Queensland does not support the move because of a lack of clinical evidence of its efficacy, spokeswoman Yvette McMurtrie said she would like to see more research conducted.
“We do understand how desperate families are and lots of families would try anything for their child,” she said.
Watch this amazing transformation as Jacqueline Patterson who suffers from stuttering medicates herself with marijuana and totally transforms her condition. Source ‘In Pot We Trust’
AMA Queensland president Dr Shaun Rudd said the organisation recognised its potential therapeutic uses.
“That said, medical use of cannabinoids is still largely experimental and additional research is needed,” he said.
A spokesman for Health Minister Lawrence Springborg said medical cannabis was not supported.
Research suggests marijuana effects hereditary 2:08
Research suggests the effects of marijuana may be hereditary. Courtesy: Fox News
- news.com.au
- 23 Apr 2014
- News