Australia to allow marijuana to be grown locally for medical trials

Canberra could be producing its first legal cannabis plants within months after the ACT government praised the federal government for filling the missing link in providing medicinal cannabis.

The Australian federal government is planning a licensing scheme to allow cultivation and distribution of medical cannabis while the issue remains a hot topic in New Zealand.

“This Government is incredibly sympathetic to the suffering of those Australians with debilitating illnesses and we want to enable access to the most effective medical treatments available”, Health Minister Sussan Ley said.

The federal government in Australia is set to legalise growing medicinal cannabis that could help patients suffering from chronic pain, side effects of chemotherapy and a few neurological diseases.

“I’m hoping that it will involve a few sort of medical amnesty which could happen immediately but I guess I’m waiting to see the finer detail”, she told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

She said she had been moved by stories of people who got a few relief from medicinal cannabis, sometimes legally imported but not always.

“Currently there are already systems in place to licence the manufacture and supply of medicinal cannabis-based products in Australia, however there is no mechanism to allow the production of a safe, legal and sustainable local supply”.

The NSW government also plans to follow the footsteps of Victoria in legalising medicinal marijuana after committing $9 million in funding for approved clinical trials at earlier this year along with another $12 million for an global Centre for Medicinal Cannabis Research and Innovation.

If the Senate approves changes to the law, states and territories will then need to pass equivalent laws to ensure Australia complies with the worldwide narcotics conventions.

The Government’s approach would keep those roles separate, with the Health Department licensing growers and the Therapeutic Goods Administration responsible for registering products, just as it does with conventional medicines.

Under current laws, the use and production marijuana is still classified as an illegal drug and possession, sale, growth, and usage of such are punishable by law. She will meet with state and territory health ministers in November to discuss how the changes will work. They would be consulted with the Greens, Labor and crossbench senators, as well as the states and territories “before bringing a final version to Parliament by the end of the year”.

Mr Rattenbury, whose draft legislation led to an Assembly review of the issue released this year, said it was a significant move forward and highlighted how fast community opinions had changed on the issue.