Pubdate: Sat, 15 Nov 2014
Source: Cairns Post (Australia)
Copyright: 2014 The Cairns Post Pty. Ltd.
Contact: http://tools.cairns.com.au/forms/contact_us.php?contact_email_id=31
Website: http://www.cairns.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/617
Page: 32

MEDICAL DOPE HIGH ON VICTORIA POLL AGENDA

NO matter who wins the Victorian election, the state is heading into 
what was until recently a political no-go zone  legal access to 
medical marijuana.

No longer left to fringe parties or the Greens, the issue now has 
support from the major parties.

It was the stories of Victorian families turning to cannabis oil and 
seeing improved quality of life for their seriously ill children that 
brought the issue into the political mainstream.

Liberal, Labor and even the Australian Sex Party are in rough 
alignment on the issue.

Fiona Patten, an Australian Sex Party candidate in the Victorian 
election, said the major parties were adjusting to a shift in 
community attitudes.

"The climate is now completely different and, I think, what we're 
seeing is a vast majority of people believe that medical marijuana 
should be available," she said.

"The debate now is looking at how to do this."

Ms Patten points to Canada where access is controlled by a patient's 
doctor, growers are licensed, and the product is medical-grade "not 
grown in someone's back yard".

The Victorian Liberal Party supports making it legal to conduct 
clinical trials of medical marijuana, thereby creating an approved 
and supervised pathway for its medical use. Families already using 
medical marijuana could enrol in these trials, where they would gain 
access to a medical-grade product. "We've taken the view that we'll 
work with other states in a sensible and pragmatic way to see trials 
of medical cannabis operate," said Health Minister David Davis.

Labor has pledged, should it win the election, to ask the Law Reform 
Commission to report on what changes would be required to legalise 
medical marijuana.

Health spokesman Gavin Jennings said the Therapeutic Goods 
Administration needed to oversee supply, and a system put in place to 
allow GPs to prescribe it.

The party that forms government after the November 29 election is 
expected to take the next step.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom