Legalise canna for sick ‘ASAP', NSW Labor Leader

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Legalise canna for sick ‘ASAP’, NSW Labor Leader

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"http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/n ... 7179233461

JANE HANSEN - THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH - JANUARY 11, 2015 12:00AM

Legalise cannabis for sick ‘as soon as possible’, NSW Labor Party leader Luke Foley says

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NSW Opposition leader Luke Foley wants cannabis to be legalised for the chronically ill. Picture: Marc McCormack

CHRONICALLY ill people should be given access to legalised cannabis “as soon as possible” with the medicinal marijuana grown locally in NSW, newly-elected NSW Labor Party leader Luke Foley says.

Mr Foley said Premier Mike Baird should “skip” the proposed trial — something he first called for in 2012.

“I’m not sure we need a trial, we could just move to the legalisation of medicinal cannabis for people with certain chronic conditions so I’d like to talk to the Premier about that, “ Mr Foley said.

“I don’t want this to be matter of partisan debate, I’d like to be working with the Premier on this.

“There is the political will now and across party lines so let’s make this happen as soon as we can and give hope to people who are suffering badly.”

When Mr Baird announced the medicinal cannabis trials in late December last year, Mr Foley felt a deep sense of achievement.

He was the driving force behind the 2012 Upper House Inquiry into the Use of Cannabis for Medical Purposes, coaxing and cajoling five political parties to take part.

His dream was to revive drug reform from the Bob Carr years more than a decade earlier.

“I thought it was the unfinished business of the Carr years, there were sensible reforms in drug policy, there was the drug summit, the safe injecting room but medicinal cannabis I always saw as the unfinished reform,” he said.

Mr Foley said the controversy surrounding the safe injecting room issue in 2000 sidelined medicinal cannabis and in 2012 he felt the time had come to reactivate the reform, securing support across five political parties to hold the upper house inquiry.

“I had to twist a few arms inside the Labor Party to proceed, I talked with Mike Gallacher, the Reverend Fred Nile, the Shooters party and the Greens. Fred was hardest to get over line, I told him he didn’t have to support the reform but what would be wrong with having an inquiry to hear from all sides in the debate,” he said.

“I don’t think Fred was wildly enthusiastic and he is not a supporter of the reform but in the end all members in upper house voted with inquiry but it was the unanimous findings of the inquiry which created the circumstance where a liberal and national government could do this.”

He says his inspiration were the families that came to him desperate for the legalisation of cannabis, but when the unanimous findings of the inquiry were blocked by Health Minister Jillian Skinner, Mr Foley said he started work with national party members he knew were on the side of reform.

“I don’t think (Ms) Skinner has been very helpful on this but several members of the National Party have and I’ve worked quietly with them Kevin Anderson and Sarah Mitchell and Trevor Khan and I think it is a rare example of politicians working across party lines to achieve reform,” he said.

Now Mr Foley says he is ready to help accelerate the process and is hoping to meet Mr Baird privately do discuss how.

“I’d like us to be more ambitious in terms of time frames and rollout, I ‘m not going to be hostile, I want to meet with him privately and talk about how we proceed. The Premier and Opposition leader working together to accelerate this reform to help people in chronic pain would be a good thing for our state,” he said.

“I want to make clear that I don’t support cannabis for recreational use, this is about helping people with certain chronic conditions for which other medications have proved ineffective,” he said, admitting that he had experimented recreationally in his youth.

“Yes, when I was very young, I’m not a smoker, so it never worked for me, my youthful experimentation did not last very long at all.”

Lucy Haslam, the mother of Dan Haslam, the 25-year-old who went public with his cannabis use to treat his terminal cancer, said the trials would take too long for her son to benefit.

“They are calling for tenders now and I’m sure it will take six to 12 months to set up a trial and most trials normally take five years. It’s a long way off, so anyone pushing to speed this up, I will sing their praises,” Ms Haslam said.

“We take out small wins, he is now registered and can’t be charged, but I think federally it needs to move more quickly,” she added, citing the Queensland father who was arrested and charged last week after giving cannabis oil to his two-year-old suffering from advanced neuroblastoma.

“(My daughter) was always in my best interest and I cared for her as any desperate father would do when they’re child has a 50-50 chance of survival,” he said on social media."


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