The Greens have unveiled a proposal for legalising medical marijuana that would have the government growing its own supply and treating children with incurable epilepsy.
“Mike Baird hasn’t found a way forward on supply [of medical marijuana],” said MLC John Kaye who will introduce a model into the upper house on Wednesday. “The Premier is caught between his own humanitarian instincts and the innate conservatism of his party.”
Proposal: Many scientific and medical organisations and reviews support medicinal cannabis. Photo: Supplied
Mr Kaye’s proposal appears significantly more wide-ranging than anything Mr Baird has countenanced since provisionally lending his support to the issue earlier this year.
For one, it would do away with the clinical trial on which the state government is currently taking expert advice, and which would precede any legalisation.
“No purpose is served by a clinical trial,” Mr Kaye said. “[Cannabis has] been around for thousands of years.”
Other key aspects of the Greens’ plan include:
- Specifically legalising patient’s use of marijuana under state law. The Premier instead believes guidelines should be changed to allow police to decline to prosecute.
- Legalising marijuana as a palliative treatment for children with severe and intractable epilepsy if they have approval from three doctors, including a specialist, and are supervised by one.
- Allowing marijuana treatments for HIV, “neuropathic” pain and any condition approved by a doctor, where the Premier has signalled he prefers its use for the terminally ill.
The Greens would also have a low-THC strain of marijuana grown by public sector agencies that could also licence patients to grow up to six mature plants in their own homes.
Dr Saxon Smith, the NSW AMA President, says the state government’s Working Group currently developing guidelines for a clinical trial, has considered use of marijuana for a range of treatments including childhood epilepsy.
But he said the AMA opposes using marijuana, particularly for children, without a clinical trial first.
Cabinet will soon decide whether to adopt its recommendations.
Jaylene Siery, from the NSW Central Coast has treating her two-and-a-half year old daughter Larissa’s epilepsy with black-market medical marijuana for a year.
“It’s probably taken her to having five seizures a day as opposed to 60,” she said.