Laws should be changed on compassionate grounds so current users are not prosecuted, parliamentary report recommends
An interim Tasmanian parliamentary report calls for the immediate decriminalisation of medicinal cannabis.
A joint upper house committee was established in July to look at the issue and on Thursday revealed its initial recommendations, calling for urgent government action.
Current Tasmanian laws do not reflect the reality cannabis is already widely used as a form of pain relief, as an antiemetic and as a means to control medical conditions including rare forms of epilepsy, said the report, produced under chairwoman, independent MLC Ruth Forrest.
Laws should be changed on compassionate grounds so current users are not prosecuted, it recommends.
And inroads should be made to investigate a legislative framework for the legal cultivation and supply of medicinal cannabis.
Security issues should not prevent growing medicinal cannabis, the report added.
“Evidence indicated the comparatively small areas required for growing medicinal cannabis can be fully secured and this security regime would not be prohibitively expensive.”
The committee received 77 submissions and held public hearings over three days during which 23 groups and individuals gave evidence, including medical experts and current users.
The committee’s inquiry will continue, including hearing evidence from interstate witnesses.