Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I recently went public on the fact that I have joined the more than 300,000 Australians who are legally accessing medicinal cannabis in this country. I may well be the first politician who has ever gone public with this matter. The reason I went public—there were a couple of articles a month or so ago—was that we have to do so much more to break down the stigma associated with the use of medicinal cannabis in this country.

Just over a month ago we had the first meeting for this parliament of the Parliamentary Friends of Medicinal Cannabis. There are 29 members and senators in that friendship group, and I understand that Senator Urquhart, who is in the chamber, is one of the co-chairs of the group. It was made clear to us that, as parliamentarians who support medicinal cannabis and are interested in medicinal cannabis—and I understand even Senator Roberts is interested in this topic—we could help to break down stigmas associated with its use, help to encourage an adult conversation in this country around the use of medicinal cannabis and help to break down barriers to accessing medicinal cannabis.

At the Parliamentary Friends of Medicinal Cannabis meeting, the minister who is responsible for the regulation of medicinal cannabis, the Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care, Ged Kearney, from the other place, spoke to us. She said four simple things. She said, firstly, that this government believes in the benefits of medicinal cannabis to users in Australia, as I believe the previous government did—and I congratulate them for bringing in the Special Access Scheme through the TGA in the first place. She also said that this government wants to see the medicinal cannabis industry grow.

She then went on to say that they'd like to see more people accessing the scheme, but, lastly, she recognised that there are significant barriers to accessing this scheme.

I want to talk a little bit about those barriers and my personal experience. It was covered off in the Guardian article as to why I access the scheme, so I won't go into too much medical detail tonight. But essentially I got shingles, which I know many Australians get, and it can be quite a debilitating virus. Unfortunately, I got it in my C3 nerve inside my eardrum and behind my eye after a surf trip to Indonesia, and even after the shingles went away I had chronic neuralgia for nearly two years, which can completely undermine your quality of life. What shingles does if you don't get on top of it is it essentially attacks your nervous system. In fact, if you continue to get shingles, especially in older age, it will kill you.

I really struggled with it, and I tried just about everything that was recommended to me. I was on opioids to deal with the pain initially. Following that I even tried fluoro light treatment. My GP made me an old bike helmet that had fluoro lights with an attached hand-held battery, which I could use when I was working at my desk in parliament. I tried pretty much everything, but to cut a long story short it was recommended that I try medicinal cannabis. The human brain is remarkable, and one of the most common receptors in your brain, in your nervous and neural pathways is an endocannabinoid receptor, which essentially produces very similar effects in your brain as taking cannabis. No-one is quite sure why we have so many endocannabinoid receptors in our brain, but products that are available through the medicinal scheme like CBD for some people—and I want to recognise it's not everyone—work very effectively on your endocannabinoid system and can significantly improve your quality of life.

I was quite surprised when I tried it. CBD oil has no psychoactive component at all, unlike THC, which everyone is familiar with in cannabis. But immediately CBD had very, very positive effects for me, including some unexpected positive side effects. It has worked well for me, and I want to talk about it. I also have had THC oil prescribed for pain and to help me sleep. That took a bit of work. The good thing about the scheme in Australia is that you get to work with a GP. If you have an open-minded GP who will refer you to the system in the first place then you work with a specialist GP. You have to jump through hoops and go through assessments, and if your medication isn't working for you the GP will work with you. It is an assisted therapy, and there is someone there to actually help you deal with it and get through it.

I know many Australians are signing up to this every day. A lot of older Australians are accessing the scheme, as are a lot of veterans and people suffering a variety of illnesses. There is no doubt that cannabis products can have side effects for people. I have experienced some of those myself, so I do recommend accessing the scheme and working with a GP to get it right. I'm very fortunate because I am one of the not so many Australians who can afford it. But most Australians can't afford it in its existing form. It is very expensive for a small vial of CBD oil, which is made in an industrial process because the CBD is concentrated. You can get CBD products at a very low dosage at the moment as veterinary products that are for humans. There is talk about making those products readily available in pharmacies without prescription. But high-concentrate CBD oil is made by an industrial process, and you can't get it on the black market or what is commonly referred to as the green market. More than 300,000 Australians are now are legally accessing the scheme, and it is estimated that 800,000 Australians are currently accessing the green or black CBD or THC medicinal cannabis market.

Of course, the CBD oil needs to be made in an industrial process and you can only really access it via the scheme, so it is out of reach for most Australians unless they have a GP who is open-minded and will refer them in the first place and they have the money to actually access the scheme.

So it was recognised by the government and the associations and various advocates who attended the Friends of Medicinal Cannabis meeting that we need to have, for example, special compassionate access schemes for Australians who can't afford it. Of course, there are two cannabinoid products that GPs can refer directly and that are covered by the PBS—only two out of nearly 400 products on the market. For epilepsy, it is quite well-established that medicinal cannabis can have a very, very positive effect on patients suffering from epilepsy, including quite severe epilepsy. However, outside of that, there are no PBS subsidies for low-income Australians who can't afford to access the scheme. So we do have a long way to go.

There are a number of other issues with the scheme. I think getting GPs to refer people to the specialist doctors is another matter. I had an open-minded GP, and I'm happy to say tonight—as I said in the Guardianthat I wouldn't be standing here talking to you tonight if it wasn't for my GP. I wasn't going to continue after 2019. I genuinely didn't feel I had the energy and the ability to continue in this job. But a lot of GPs aren't aware of this scheme. They still have issues around it, and it needs a lot more education, even at the GP level, to get referrals to a specialist doctor. I have no problems with GPs; I think they're all fantastic and hard-working. But we need to work harder on getting them familiar with the scheme. I think it is quite simple: it's because they're too busy. Some of them have waiting lists that are two months. You're lucky to even get an appointment with a GP in Tasmania at the moment. It is not easy for them to go and do the course and get familiar with it so that they can refer you themselves. It isn't easy to do that. I have heard that feedback from GPs.

Also, as I said earlier, this doesn't work for everyone. There are many success stories I have heard, and there other stories were people have taken it and it hasn't worked for them. But that is no different to any other product on the market. It doesn't matter what pharmacology product you are being offered, there will be different impacts on different people. So it's not for everyone, but my testimony and my personal story here tonight is that it's worked well for me, and I intend to speak at the Australian Medicinal Cannabis Symposium in Brisbane next weekend on a panel. I think Senator Urquhart will also be on that panel, to try to encourage more Australians to access the scheme.