Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Families and Payments) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Narcotic Drugs Amendment Bill 2016. I put on record my appreciation of Stephen Jones, the member for Throsby, for his work in this area and the work he has done on promoting the need for this important reform. This bill, as other contributors to the debate today have said, is an important part of the regulatory and legislative framework that will allow Australians to access the medicinal cannabis products that are available.

The simple fact is that we know these products work. We know that across this country there are people who are already accessing medicinal cannabis products, and these people are telling us that these products have completely changed their lives. These are people suffering pain or dealing with medical conditions who have sought relief from other medications that have not worked for them. However, to access these products, life-saving and life-changing products, these people have to get them from the black market. In doing so, they are at risk of being arrested and convicted. There are also unable to determine the exact ingredients and the quality of the product they are taking. People are caught between the risk of criminal sanction and unreliable supply, and knowing their loved ones will suffer if something does not change.

For this reason, I welcome this bill as a definite step in the right direction. No-one—no family, no parent—should be faced with making a decision about getting a loved one the treatment they need by breaking the law. But, as I have said, currently this is the decision many people have to make. This is because people who have debilitating and life-threatening conditions which cause unbearable pain and muscle spasticity cannot find relief from pain from existing therapeutic goods. Under the current law, people are expected to watch their child, partner or parent in immense pain, knowing relief is available but it illegal.

The establishment of a medicinal cannabis licensing scheme would give patients who are suffering from a terminal illness or other serious medical conditions access to safe, reliable and legal medicinal cannabis if prescribed by their doctor.

The bill before us today will put in place the supply chain arrangements that will allow the legal production of medicinal cannabis products. It is, as has been said today, the first critical step in allowing medicinal cannabis to be produced in this country. Primarily, the bill amends the Narcotic Drugs Act to permit the licensing of growers of medicinal cannabis in Australia. It also provides a fit and proper person test to be applied to licensees by the Department of Health. If the bill is adopted today, it will ensure that Australia remains compliant with its obligations under the single convention.

We know that there is broad public support for making cannabis products available for medicinal purposes. Survey after survey, poll after poll, have proved this point. But there is also broad public support for having a regulatory system which ensures that Australian medicines are safe. Labor is committed to working with the government and interested parties to ensure that the Commonwealth government can provide national leadership that ensures medicinal cannabis treatments are made available in a safe and legal way.

I want to pay tribute to two people in my home state of Tasmania who have worked tirelessly to see the use of medicinal cannabis legalised. Marilyn and Andrew Irving have led the campaign on this matter and have been nothing short of inspirational. Marilyn has a painful degenerative nerve condition. When I saw her in the week before Christmas I was pleased that, although she was in a wheelchair, she was in better health than I had seen her for a long time. Andrew, Marilyn's husband, was at his wits end, trying to ease Marilyn's constant pain and terrible tremors from her condition. He was desperate and so he turned to medicinal cannabis. He was 'blown away'—those are his own words—by what he calls the near miraculous effects of the cannabis oil on Marilyn. Andrew pays $280 a month for the cannabis drops but does not begrudge the money because it has helped Marilyn and helped transform their lives.

As I said, Andrew has become a really vocal campaigner on the need for this bill. In the words of Duncan Abey, a journalist with the Mercury newspaper, in his article on 20 December last year: 'Andrew has taken his campaign to the world by producing a digital newsletter called The Leaf, espousing the benefits of medicinal cannabis. Andrew says the aim of the newsletter is to increase education on the issue and to help reduce the stigma users encounter. All users want to be able to use medicinal cannabis within the law.'

Andrew has at times been left emotionally drained since he became an advocate for medicinal cannabis. He has had many calls and inquiries from people who are desperate. As Andrew says, 'It has been heartbreaking to hear people crying on the other end of the line. People are still suffering, people are still dying, people are still in pain.' As I said, this bill is an important first step to ensuring people like Andrew and Marilyn Irving are able to access safe and legally approved medicinal cannabis.

I turn to the work done by Tasmania's shadow Attorney-General, Lara Giddings, who this month has announced that Tasmanian Labor, when in government, will immediately decriminalise cannabis possession and use by Tasmanians suffering from a range of severe medical conditions. The Tasmanian legislation would decriminalise the possession and use of cannabis for medical purposes by people who suffer epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, cancer or HIV-AIDS and severe chronic pain. It would have to be approved by two medical specialists, and other medical conditions would be considered by an independent medical advisory committee. A Tasmanian Labor government's legislation would also call for the licensing, cultivation, manufacture and dispensing of medicinal cannabis in Tasmania. A Tasmanian Labor government would also launch clinical trials of medical cannabis that complement those of Victoria and New South Wales, in conjunction with Tasmanian businesses in collaboration with the University of Tasmania. As Ms Giddings said, 'The decriminalisation of cannabis is so important to so many Tasmanian families who are faced with the awful choice at the moment of having to either watch their loved ones suffer or break the law by providing them with cannabis.'

This bill is important in ending the delays for people who continue to suffer needlessly. This bill has, at its core, easing the suffering of those for whom medicinal cannabis can provide relief. I commend the bill to the Senate.