Public Health Association Supports Legalisation of Medical Cannabis

Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) has supported the legalisation of cannabis by launching a new organisation policy aimed at recognising the needs of seriously and terminally ill individuals.

PHAA's CEO Michael Moore said that the Association "recognises the need for a compassionate regime whereby seriously and terminally ill individuals who have been appropriately authorised may possess and use cannabis”.

“With regard to medicinal cannabis, the policies and practices of the Commonwealth, State and Territory governments are out of step with the attitudes and behaviour of much of the general public and professional opinion.  It is now timely for Australian governments to give serious consideration to options for a tightly-regulated, compassionate medicinal cannabis regime managed by medical practitioners and the State and Territory health departments,” Mr Moore said.

PHAA has recommended that:

·         Australian governments, collaboratively with members of the affected communities (including families and carers) and public health, medical and law enforcement experts, initiate careful policy work on how to introduce a compassionate, palliation-focussed, medicinal cannabis regime within their respective jurisdictions.

·         Governments support research into the long term benefits and risks of cannabis compounds for medicinal purposes.

·         The starting point be the proposals currently before the NSW and ACT legislatures for medicinal cannabis to be available to terminally ill people in circumstances where their doctors and the state/territory health department agree that cannabis may provide palliation benefits to the patient.

·         The compassionate medicinal cannabis regime go further than serving only terminally ill people, with possession and use of botanical cannabis and synthetic cannabinoids also carrying no penalty when used by people with other serious health conditions that their doctors and the state/territory health departments consider may be palliated through consuming cannabis, in situations where conventional approaches have been unsuccessful or are contraindicated.

·         Considering that pharmaceutical cannabis is legally available in Australia in only one form and for only one narrow indication, the regime needs to also include provisions for the removal of penalties in very limited circumstances for the use of botanical cannabis and its extracts ingested through various routes of administration including smoking (for adults only), vaporisers and food products.

·         The regime include provisions providing no penalty for the person with the health condition in question to possess an amount of cannabis that is deemed to be for personal use (i.e. less than the trafficable quantity threshold).  The regime should also specify no penalty to that person - or a third party nominated by the person and/or the relevant authorities (doctor/s and health department) - to cultivate, possess, supply and/or administer personal-use quantities of cannabis product to the person authorised to receive it.

·         Governments explore the feasibility of making medicinal cannabis available from other sources, e.g. importing pharmaceutical-standard cannabis from overseas-based producers and/or licensing medicinal cannabis production in Australia.