Marijuana could be a bosst for the north Queensland economy Source: Supplied
THE proposed legalisation of medicinal marijuana would help ease the pain of chronically ill people and also boost the North Queensland economy.
Federal Member for Dawson George Christensen, who has backed proposed new laws for medicinal cannabis, believes North Queensland could benefit from the introduction of a new crop.
“North Queensland would be ideal for the cultivation of the medicinal varieties of cannabis,” he said.
“We have good fertile soil and plenty of water so another crop option would help farmers diversify and give their farm a stronger business base.”
Legislation proposing the legalisation of medicinal marijuana was introduced in the Senate yesterday and will be introduced in the House of Representatives next week.
If passed, the new laws would see a regulator set up to approve medicinal cannabis products, setting rules for the licensing, production and use of those products.
Mr Christensen said medicinal cannabis could provide enormous benefits to medical treatments as well as agriculture.
Member for Dawson George Christensen says growing medicinal marijuana is not about ‘legalising pot’ Source: Supplied
“It is important to distinguish between medicinal marijuana and recreational marijuana,” he said. “This is not about legalising ‘pot’ or ‘weed’ because the active ingredient in recreational marijuana (THC) exists only at very low levels in medicinal cannabis.”
Leichhardt MP Warren Entsch, who will co-sponsor the Bill in the House of Representatives, said the proposed new laws would stop people with terminal or chronic medical conditions having to do “backyard deals” to access cannabis for medicinal purposes.
“The proposed regulator will reflect world’s best practice in providing a framework for the production and distribution of medicinal cannabis,” he said. The proposed model draws on international frameworks from Canada, Holland and Israel and is similar to the regulations that allows the cultivation of poppies in Tasmania for opiate medications such as morphine, pethidine and oxycodone.
Consortiums would be licensed to grow cannabis under very tightly regulated procedures, with no interaction with the illicit drug market. Herbert MP Ewen Jones said he had not read the Bill, but supported the rights of anyone in pain.
He said he had seen close family and friends suffer and die from cancer.
“The pain was severe,” he said.
Originally published as Cannabis could be cash crop for state