Lisa Singh (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Hansard source

I gladly rise to speak in support of the Narcotics Drug Amendment Bill 2016. Labor is supporting this bill which makes a medicinal cannabis licensing scheme legal in Australia. A number of Labor members and senators, and other senators in this place, have been pushing for changes to this law for some time. The Commonwealth parliament, through this bill, is very much playing its part in helping to ensure that families will no longer have to access medicinal cannabis products illegally or on the black market and to ensure we have a regulated licensing scheme in Australia. Why? It is because I and so many others have heard from families, sufferers and people in pain their personal stories of pain and relief, with medicinal cannabis providing that relief. Why are we having this bill? It is because families should no longer have to find themselves caught between the risk of criminal action on the one hand and using an unreliable supply on the other, all the while knowing that their loved one will suffer if something does not change.

So I rise to speak on this today in the hope that, in the coming months, states and territories in Australia will work together to ensure that medicinal cannabis is legal, safe and available to those in need. In passing this bill we are doing our part at the federal level but we also need the states to do theirs to make medicinal cannabis available to those families who need it most.

This bill is a very first critical step that will enable medicinal cannabis to be produced in this country. Primarily it amends the Narcotic Drugs Act to permit the licensing of growers of medicinal cannabis in Australia and provides a fit-and-proper-person test to be applied to licences by the Department of Health.

We know there is broad public support for making cannabis products available for medicinal purposes in Australia. There has been survey after survey and poll after poll that has proved that. But there has also been broad public support for having a regulatory system which ensures that Australian medicine is safe. I note that the AMA have previously called for a coordinated approach to medicinal cannabis and raised their concerns about previous bills.

The experience of watching a loved one suffer is soul destroying. We feel their pain and their exhaustion and are often powerless to help. After listening to the overwhelming evidence and the personal stories from families during the Senate inquiry that I participated in last year with Senator Di Natale, Senator Ian Macdonald and Senator Urquhart, it was clear that legalisation was needed. So our laws need to change. Our current law does not reflect the reality that medicinal cannabis is already being used successfully as a form of pain relief and a means to control diseases, such as epilepsy.

Nor is medicinal cannabis a new or controversial treatment. Indeed, until the 1970s even it was available in Australia. Evidence suggests that its medicinal properties were well recognised in ancient China, where physicians recommended it for the relief of constipation, gout, malaria and loss of appetite as well as an aid to childbirth. Cannabis was widely used for a variety of ailments, such as muscle spasms, menstrual cramps, rheumatism, convulsions, rabies and epilepsy. It was also used to promote uterine contractions in childbirth and as a sedative to induce sleep. So it has a long history and should not be controversial.

As well, we can look at other jurisdictions internationally that have recognised the benefits of medicinal cannabis. Israel has a medicinal cannabis scheme under which medicinal cannabis is supplied to patients who are approved by the Israeli Ministry of Health through licensed growers in Israel who cultivate cannabis plants on a not-for-profit basis. Health Canada has granted access to cannabis for medicinal purposes to Canadians who have the support of their physicians. In the Netherlands, the government has licensed growers to produce standardised cannabis which is then prescribed by doctors and dispensed by pharmacists. So we can learn from other countries on how they have administered medicinal cannabis.

As I said, the community support is so significant in Australia for the medicinal use of cannabis that this change has to happen sooner rather than later. The 2013 National Drug Strategy Household Survey by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare found that around 70 per cent of respondents supported a change in legislation permitting the use of cannabis for medicinal purposes and 74 per cent of respondents were in favour of clinical trials into medical cannabis.

Over the last 18 months I have been incredibly touched by the stories of patients using medicinal cannabis and those of their families supporting them. They are the human faces of devastating diseases who, for a variety of reasons, have found conventional medicines have not worked for them.

Daniel Haslam was one of those individuals. Dan was a courageous young man who advocated fearlessly for the use of medicinal cannabis right up until his death. He was diagnosed with terminal cancer at just 20 years of age. He dedicated himself to promoting a cause he believed could bring some relief to people suffering from painful, life-threatening diseases such as his. In doing so, he advocated that conventions have not kept pace with scientific progress. Lucy Haslam, Dan's mum, presented compelling evidence to the Senate inquiry into medicinal cannabis last year. She said:

I have spoken to cancer patients and I have spoken to people with MS who were ready to commit suicide but are now looking to go back to work.

Lucy Haslam, your tireless work has helped us get to this point today. We owe you a great debt and gratitude for all of your advocacy for your family, for Dan and for everyone in the community. You have touched the lives of so many, including so many of us here, and have helped us get to this point.

In my home state of Tasmania Nicole Cowles has also been an inspiring advocate on behalf of her daughter, Alice, who suffers from extreme seizures. Nicole testified to the significant improvement in Alice's condition after beginning treatment with medicinal cannabis. Her story joins many I have heard in Tasmanian of grandmas with severe back pain who no longer needs conventional painkillers, of mothers with substantial shakes who have been able to reinvigorate their lives and of others who have experienced relief from pain, seizures, shakes, cancer and depression. I have sat with these people as they told me their remarkable stories. Some were brought back from the edge and are able to live again because of the benefits of medicinal cannabis. Listening to their stories reminded me of the pain and the suffering that my godmother, who had rheumatoid arthritis, suffered with for so many years. She passed away a couple of years ago now. I wonder what relief she may have found if medicinal cannabis had been available to her. In meeting mothers, fathers, sons and daughters who are risking their livelihoods and freedom to secure safe, consistent tinctures to alleviate the pain or symptoms of their loved ones, I thought to myself, 'I would do the same.' Part of the risk with medicinal cannabis has been sourcing reliable medicine. Tinctures can vary in quality and efficacy, with the added risk of dodgy dealers taking advantage of vulnerable individuals. Then there are the white knights who have worked tirelessly to produce quality tinctures and give them to patients. I commend their courage and advocacy. Because of their work, I can stand here today in the hope of a nationally consistent scheme bringing numerous benefits to both patients and the community.

It is critical for those patients who are suffering to be able to talk freely and openly with their medical practitioners about the benefits of this treatment. It also gives doctors further options for treatment in cases where conventional medicines have failed to work. This is highly beneficial not only for patients currently using medicinal cannabis but also for future patients. These may include people having cancer chemotherapy or suffering from HIV related illness, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury, epilepsy, diabetes, Alzheimer's or inflammatory bowel disease—the list goes on and on. There may be benefits that medicinal cannabis can provide to those suffering from disease and pain.

The Narcotic Drugs Amendment Bill 2016 will bring additional benefits with the national licensing scheme creating two classes of licence: medicine and research. The creation of the research licence will enable further research and clinical trials such as the one in New South Wales, which is co-sponsored by Victoria and Queensland. Clinical evidence will help solidify the significant anecdotal evidence which supports the benefits of medicinal cannabis. With the importation of plants and seeds into Australia, the opportunity to refine and understand the different strains and their properties will be provided. Our understanding of the benefits of medicinal cannabis for a variety of ailments will be furthered, and that is so important. Coupled with the national scheme of cultivation for medicinal purposes, we will be giving this industry the best chance of creating effective, consistent medication. The legislation introduced will decriminalise the manufacturing of medicinal cannabis, but it also has the potential to create an inconsistency with state and territory laws. Each state and territory has different criminal laws around the possession and use of cannabis. They need to come to the party and change their laws. Currently, the use, possession, supply and trafficking of cannabis are prohibited in all states and territories, as they are proscribed by the crimes acts, codes and poisons acts in those various states.

It is clear that, regardless of us passing this law today, it is only the first step. It still does not provide the treatment needed for those suffering pain in our communities. I urge the minister, after this part of the puzzle is solved, to take it up with those states and territories and get them on board. I certainly will do so in my own home state.

In the last year in this place, I think there has been a higher level of leadership from a number of MPs and senators on medicinal cannabis, and that national leadership is needed. A patchwork of access arrangements cannot emerge across different states and territories. That is the whole point of having a federally legislated approach. We need a uniform system of laws, both medical and criminal, in relation to access to this drug. We also need uniform clinical guidelines to be developed, guidance on what products are produced and national leadership to deal with problems as they arise.

Australia already has a vast experience in managing controlled substances such as growing poppies for the purpose of producing opiate based medicines. We also have the benefit and example of experience from our overseas partners, which I alluded to earlier. Growers' licences must be connected to the supply chain, meaning a grower will need to have an arrangement in place with a manufacturer in order to get a licence. Permits will be issued to control the amount of cannabis that is produced. The system will ensure that the oversupply of cannabis does not occur. The objective, of course, is to ensure that we do not have stockpiles of cannabis being produced and ending up being used for unlawful purposes. Similarly, a manufacturer must be able to demonstrate their connection to the supply chain, dispensing to the patient so that it is consistent with the Therapeutic Goods Act. We need the Commonwealth and the states and territories working together because they all have a role to play in ensuring that each aspect of the manufacture, use and possession of medicinal cannabis is legal.

Having said all of that, of course medicinal cannabis is not a silver bullet to all the ailments that people suffer, but it is definitely a potential source of alleviating pain. I have listened to so many stories from family members who have shared the incredible turnaround that their loved ones have experienced from the simple application of a tincture of medicinal cannabis each day. It is time for Australia to follow suit of other nations and provide this alternative treatment, legally, to help alleviate the suffering of our loved ones.

In closing, I would like to acknowledge some of the support that has already been given by state and territory leaders in our community, particularly by the former Premier in Tasmania, Lara Giddings, who has been tirelessly campaigning for medicinal cannabis at the Tasmanian level. She, like me, has seen the benefits it has provided to so many suffering in pain. I do not want all of that advocacy and leadership that has been on display by so many in those states and territories, particularly by Lara, to be in vain if we do not complete the puzzle that is needed to provide a federal legislated scheme. That is why it is so important that this bill is passed but that the states and territories then play their role.

Finally, in the words of Lucy Haslam: 'Every time somebody dies in pain, that is a travesty that should not be happening. We can do something about this.' Lucy, we are here with you, trying so hard to do something about this and to make medicinal cannabis available in Australia as soon as possible so that so many people who are suffering no longer have to take cannabis illegally and so that they can have it provided to them by a practitioner. It can be another source of medicine that is available in our community. We already know the benefits that it provides, and we need it so much to be provided.