Pubdate: Thu, 04 Nov 2004
Source: New Zealand Herald (New Zealand)
Copyright: 2004 New Zealand Herald
Contact:  http://www.nzherald.co.nz/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/300
Related: Outrage at Jailing of Invalid 
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v04/n1564/a10.html
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?232 (Chronic Pain)

MEDICAL CANNABIS OUT, SAYS ANDERTON

Associate Minister of Health Jim Anderton says he will not support a bill 
allowing the cultivation of cannabis for pain relief.

But Green Party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons believes the drug should be 
allowed for medical reasons.

The issue has arisen after Christchurch man Neville Yates was sent to jail 
for five months by Christchurch District Court Judge David Holderness for 
growing cannabis he says he uses for pain relief.

Yates, who is wheelchair-bound and brain-damaged after being hit by a truck 
30 years ago, had been sent to jail in 1999 for the same offence.

Mr Anderton, chairman of the ministerial committee on drug policy, said 
yesterday that he would not support a bill allowing cannabis cultivation 
for pain relief.

"The Ministry of Health is looking into this issue but it has to do it on a 
careful basis. It has to have clinical evidence and advice that using 
cannabis for pain relief is safe," he told National Radio.

Mr Anderton said the effects of smoking cannabis were even worse than tobacco.

He said if cannabis was to be allowed for medical reasons, it had to be 
properly administered and trialled clinically to ensure it did have the 
benefits claimed.

"You can't just say, 'Let's use anything, some leaf or something', you've 
got to have a set of clinical evidence and advice that this is working 
properly under certain dosage, under certain medication prescription."

But Jeanette Fitzsimons argued for a change in the law.

"I have a private member's bill in the ballot that would allow for doctors' 
consent to be given to allow cannabis to be used medicinally when it is 
appropriate."

It was "cruel and inhuman" to send Yates to jail, she said.

"It's a miscarriage of justice to imprison a man who presents no danger to 
society simply because he was using the only pain relief he found to be 
effective and with far less serious side-effects than prescription drugs."

Mr Anderton said if cannabis was available in less dangerous forms than 
smoking and was proved to work medically he would not have a problem with it.

He said Yates had needed proper legal advice in court and hadn't been 
helped by his association with cannabis advocate Blair Anderson as an 
in-court assistant.

The judge was also critical of Mr Anderson's support of Yates.

"You were not greatly assisted by [Anderson] and other members of the group 
who were, plainly, pro-cannabis advocates," the judge said.

Yates had three previous convictions for cultivating cannabis and a total 
of nine for cannabis-related offending. 
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