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titleMedical Cannabis

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caption@P@ 1 46 PHOTOGRAPHY GETTY IMAGES Should medicinal cannabis use be legal in Australia? Patricia Flokis looks at the concerns and asks two medical experts for their opinions I magine there was a drug that could help you or someone you love deal with pain and other distressing symptoms of a serious medical condition – yet taking it makes you a criminal. It’s a dilemma faced by many Australians who effectively break the law every time they take cannabis for medical reasons. Medicinal cannabis refers to using the cannabis plant to treat a disease or relieve its symptoms, rather than using it for recreational purposes. It is now legal in 20 countries around the world including Israel, the Netherlands, Canada, Italy and Switzerland, and in 23 states in the United States. Although it is technically still illegal in Australia, there is growing support to legalise medicinal cannabis. In September the NSW government announced plans for guidelines that would order police not to prosecute terminally ill people who use cannabis, and for a clinical trial into cannabis for pain relief that could lead to dying patients getting it on prescription. Police, health professionals and politicians will report this December on how a supply scheme would work. But these steps have taken years of campaigning by advocates of medical cannabis. So what has been holding things up? Here, we look at how medicinal cannabis works, who it can help, and the arguments for and against allowing its medicinal use. THE ARGUMENT FOR MEDICINAL CANNABIS Dr Laurence Mather, emeritus professor of anaesthesia at the University of Sydney, says that “more than enough” is known about medicinal cannabis to legalise its use for selected conditions now. “Cannabis has genuine medicinal properties that are useful for some patients in some circumstances,” he explains. “It can help relieve the symptoms of conditions,

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caption@P@ 1 47 PHOTOGRAPHY GETTY IMAGES Medicinal cannabis was legal in Australia until 50 years ago. “Historically, cannabis has been used to treat many other things such as migraines, cramping, glaucoma, epilepsy and bronchodilation in patients with asthma, and we believe there are probably some emerging uses to do with cancer treatments, too,” he adds. WHY IT’S SO CONTROVERSIAL One of the main impediments to legalising medicinal cannabis is the continual focus on the drug’s recreational use. This is unfair, says Dr Mather. “The argument that allowing medicinal cannabis increases recreational use or that it sends the wrong message to the community has largely been discredited,” he explains. “For instance, recreational cannabis use in those US states which allow medicinal cannabis is not greater than in those states where it’s not permitted.” Australia also allows morphine, cocaine, amphetamine and ketamine to be used medically while prohibiting their recreational use. “The medicinal and recreational uses of cannabis are diff erent and should be kept separate,” he says. Medicinal cannabis is usually smoked or taken as a tincture. It can also be vaporised and inhaled. “We would like to see it prepared like any other medicine under good manufacturing practices, so that it’s like any other generic medicine,” says Dr Mather. “In the Netherlands, for instance, they have a range of fi ve diff erent products.” It also appears that the majority of Australians are ready to embrace the legalisation of medicinal cannabis. In 2010, a survey commissioned by the Commonwealth Department of Health found 69 per cent of Australians supported the use of medicinal cannabis, while 75 per cent supported more research being undertaken. And, in July this year, a national news poll found 65.9 per cent of Australians supported legalisation, with the highest backing coming