Police question pregnant mother over cannabis treatment for disabled son

Momentum growing for medicinal cannabis

Terminally-ill cancer patient Daniel Haslam is convinced that NSW will legalise medicinal cannabis, leading the way for the rest of the country.
The 24-year-old's confidence comes after apparently winning over NSW Premier Mike Baird during an hour-long meeting this week.
Daniel, who was diagnosed with bowel cancer in March 2010, was given only months to live and has been undergoing chemotherapy for the last four years.
He began taking cannabis to relieve his symptoms and his retired nurse mum Lucy and father Lou - former head of the drug squad in northwest NSW - are now asking politicians to legalise the controversial drug.
Daniel, his wife Alyce and mother flew to Sydney from Tamworth, in northern NSW, on Tuesday and met with Mr Baird.
"I like to think I'm a good judge of character and I believe what he said," Daniel told AAP on Wednesday.
"I believe he genuinely supports this."
His mother says until meeting with Mr Baird, her family had received "lip service" from government ministers.
"He said that if it was his wife or his child that was in the same situation as Dan, he would want the same for them," Lucy said.
"We asked him if he was going to support (legalising medicinal cannabis) and he said `yes' he would support it."
Mr Baird said in a statement: "Compassion remains my key focus in this debate - but any solution must address concerns in relation to supply and regulation."
Australian Medical Association (AMA) federal president Dr Brian Owler said clinical trials were needed to assess the drug.
"The AMA's position about medicinal cannabis is that we recognise that it does have some therapeutic potential," he said.
"But that needs to be assessed properly in a regulated way,"
Queensland Premier Campbell Newman said he had an "open mind" about legalising medicinal cannabis while Victorian Premier Denis Napthine said he intended talking to experts on the issue.
"We can't have people making their own decisions without proper medical advice on treatment, particularly of children," Mr Napthine told Fairfax Radio this week.
Under a private members bill to be introduced next month by NSW Nationals MP Kevin Anderson, terminally ill people will be able to legally use cannabis for medical purposes.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/aa...growing-medicinal-cannabis.html#ixzz38LZaVHmN
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
 
Premier Mike Baird rolls up on legal medicinal cannabis: He would support his family using it if they were terminally ill

017178-5001cec4-1174-11e4-ae81-95568c4ed36e.jpg

Terminally ill Dan Haslam with his wife Alyce. Source: News Corp Australia
Click to expand...

THE legalisation of medicinal cannabis in NSW looks increasingly likely with political leaders backing the idea and Premier Mike Baird confirming he would support his wife and children using marijuana if they were terminally ill.

Mr Baird, Deputy Premier Andrew Stoner and opposition leader John Robertson last night indicated provisional support for legalising the drug for medicinal purposes, so long as key concerns over regulation and supply are addressed.

The Greens also support it.

The move comes after Mr Baird spent an hour with cancer patient Daniel Haslam, 24, who was told in 2010 he had only months to live.

Mr Haslam’s plight was revealed recently in The Sunday Telegraph.

His retired-nurse mum Lucy and father Lou, a former head of Tamworth’s police drug squad, started buying him cannabis and insist it has helped him fight the disease.

“The Premier related to our story and told us that if it was his wife or children, he’d want it available for them,” Ms Haslam said.

“He said he supported us and I think he sees it as an opportunity for NSW to lead.”

Tamworth MP Kevin Anderson will table a private member’s bill next month to make it legal for registered terminally ill patients or their authorised carers to possess up to 15g of cannabis.

Coalition MPs will not get a conscience vote.

Mr Baird said he was struck by Daniel’s “determination and courage” but raised concerns about the supply and regulation of medicinal cannabis.

A spokesman for Nationals Leader Andrew Stoner said he supported the concept but had the same concerns as Mr Baird.

Mr Robertson said: “I acknowledge there remains practical and regulatory issues that need to be worked through in this area.”

The NSW Nursing and Midwives’ Association and the Cancer Council supports the drug’s use for medicinal purposes.

The Australian Medical Association has acknowledged cannabis’s “therapeutic potential” but says more research is needed.

017206-448e0260-1174-11e4-ae81-95568c4ed36e.jpg


http://www.news.com.au/national/nsw...e-terminally-ill/story-fnii5s3x-1226998015806
 
It's a big step for Aus at the moment but I am ready for a huge let down, I'm guessing some states are about to legalise medical cannabis but with certain restrictions like -

1) You have to be dying to use it (certified)

2) The medicinal cannabis will only be in the forms of sativex (nasal spray) and tablets made only by large pharmaceutical companies.

So people who have immense pain or seizures or whatever wont be allowed it and if they are allowed it it will probably be as I said above in two forms that are not as good as the real thing ie straight cannabis )eaten or vaped or oil or whatever, just not smoked if possible, then again, if that's what you wont to do then do it).

I just wish we had it like Cali or Colo or something, maybe we will over time.. I hope!
 
'I'm not going to deny I did experiment in my youth:' NSW Premier Mike Baird admits to smoking cannabis in his youth

Recently appointed NSW Premier Mike Baird has admitted to experimenting with Cannabis during an interview that canvasses his support for legalising the drug.
The devout Christian and father of three, who succeeded former premier Barry O'Farrell in April, said he had used cannabis as a young person but was quick to dismiss it had any part to play in his life - other than as a one-off experiment.
The Premier told the Daily Telegraph in an interview to mark his 100th day since being thrust into the state's top job, 'we've all been young, so I'm not going to deny I did experiment in my youth.'
He made the remark when quizzed about decriminalising the drug for medicinal purposes in NSW, but said his own experience with drug-taking was neither 'pleasant' nor 'regular'.
'It's got nothing to do with this issue anyway.'

The premier, and a number of NSW MPs, have given in-principle support for legalising marijuana for terminally ill patients in the state after Mr Baird visited a Tamworth cancer patient.
Daniel Haslam, a 24-year-old, was told in 2010 that he only had months to live but begun taking cannabis as a pain coping mechanism to help him deal with the disease.
He has made vast improvements in his health, his mother - a former head the north west NSW drug squad said, and she is now asking politicians to legalise the controversial drug.
Mr Baird said he was 'struck with Daniel and the battle he's in' after meeting with him.
'It's heart-wrenching,' he said. 'I've got deep sympathy and empathy with their position.'
Clinical trials of medicinal cannabis could happen in NSW, but Mr Baird is waiting on details about regulation and supply before making any commitments.
Under a private member's bill to be introduced next month by Nationals MP Kevin Anderson, terminally ill people and their carers will be legally able to carry up to 15 grams of cannabis.

Asked if he would support a clinical trial, as proposed by the Australian Medical Association, Mr Baird said 'it may well be something we have to do'.
'I'm open to that,' he told ABC Radio on Thursday.
But Mr Baird is waiting to see details of the bill and whether it will address his concerns about the sale and regulation of the drug.
But if the bill satisfies Mr Baird, it seems likely Daniel and his family won't be forced to break the law for much longer.
'If we can provide relief to them in those circumstance, well, what premier would not want to do that?" Mr Baird said.
NSW Opposition Leader John Robertson said he's willing to work with the government but, like Mr Baird, wanted to see how the bill addresses things such as supply and access before fully endorsing it.
'I'm not writing a blank cheque, but I am very supportive of his notion," he told reporters on last week.
'If marijuana is part of the solution to dealing with those issues as a means of relieving people's pain, then we should be looking at that.'


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...its-smoking-cannabis-youth.html#ixzz38o91NRo3
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
 
Charge against medicinal cannabis advocate adjourned

20110823000339548777-original-640x425.jpg

Tony Bower (left), director and founder of Mullaways Medical Cannabis, holds a vial of cannabis tincture. He was joined by supporters from the Nimbin Hemp Embassy protesting outside NSW State Parliament in Sydney. Mr Bower faces court today charged with breaching a good behaviour bond. (AAP image)
Click to expand...

A charge against medicinal cannabis advocate Tony Bower of Kempsey was adjourned until August 14 in the Port Macquarie District Court today.

Mr Bower faces going back to jail for growing plants to make cannabis tincture for patients across the northern rivers and Australia.

He supplies about 150 people with his tincture, from children suffering epilepsy to cancer patients dealing with nausea from chemotherapy.

He does not charge for the medicine.

Despite registering his company, Mullaways Medical Cannabis, and applying for a licence to operate from the NSW government, his application has been mired in bureaucracy and political indecision for more than five years.

Last year he was charged by police with possessing about 200 cannabis plants and was sentenced to 12 months in prison.

Although his tincture, crafted from his own specially-bred variety of cannabis called Cleverman, is not believed to be illegal, growing the plants to make the medicine is still a crime in NSW.

After serving six weeks inside, the sentence was overturned on appeal in the Port Macquarie District Court, and he was placed on a 12-month good-behaviour bond.

But just days before that bond was completed, Mr Bower was arrested again after a police helicopter spotted his crop of 72 plants, each marked with a patient’s name.

That cultivation charge will be heard in Port Macquarie magistrate’s court on 28 August, but today he faced the District Court for the alleged breach of his bond – of not being of ‘good behaviour’.

Mr Bower, an Aboriginal man who found early in life that cannabis could ease the pains associated with a motorcycle accident, is unrepentant.

His solicitor Jamie Whitehead said the matter was adjourned because the prosecution did not have documents that had been requested by the defence.

Mr Whitehead said the District Court matter would probably not be finalised until October, with a pre-sentence report expected to be ordered at the next appearance.

He said the support for Mr Bower had been overwhelming.

‘We have received literally thousands (of character references). People have been great,’ he said.

Meanwhile, NSW Premier Mike Baird last week came out in support of medicinal cannabis after meeting Lucy Haslam and her 24-four year-old son Daniel, who is battling cancer.

Mr Baird said while he supported medicinal cannabis he was still concerned about the supply issues.

Those issues will be debated in a month when Tamworth MP Kevin Anderson introduces a private member’s bill into parliament.

It will be tabled in two parts: the first allowing terminally ill patients to avoid prosecution if they are caught with 15 grams or less of the drug and the second dealing with the issue of supply.

Mr Baird last week said that supply remained an issue.

Nimbin Hemp Embassy president Michael Balderstone said however that the region’s network of growers and suppliers should be utilised, not ignored.

‘They [the government] can’t accept that it’s been happening for 40 years. We have all of these growers with so much expertise and yet they want to farm it off to pharmaceutical companies,’ Mr Balderstone said.

Queensland’s ultra-conservative premier Campbell Newman has also called on federal health authorities to investigate the possible trial of medicinal cannabis.

Meanwhile, in America, the domino effect of more than 20 states legalising medicinal cannabis (with some going so far as to recognise its recreational use) has been applauded by advocates.

http://www.echo.net.au/2014/07/medicinal-cannabis-advocate-back-court/
 
Medical marijuana grower Marc Selan escapes conviction

marijuana-20140731161557849362-620x349.jpg


EXCLUSIVE
An unemployed dental technician who grew marijuana in his backyard to treat a debilitating disease has avoided a conviction after a magistrate decided to take a "compassionate" approach.
Marc Selan, 41, contracted ulcerative colitis - a disease that causes inflammation in the large intestine - in 2011 and turned his recreational use of marijuana into a therapeutic solution when he had an adverse reaction to traditional medications.
A Melbourne court heard on Thursday that Mr Selan's doctor unsuccessfully applied under the Therapeutic Goods Administration for an exemption to use marijuana for medical purposes.
Advertisement
Defence lawyer Avi Furstenberg produced in Melbourne Magistrates Court a letter from the doctor that confirmed his client "could not take standard medical treatments" for the disease.
Mr Furstenberg also read excerpts from a 2013 NSW standing committee, which considered that "medical cannabis has potential as an effective treatment for some medical conditions".
He told magistrate Luisa Bazzani the report said "cannabis products are emerging as a promising area of medicine, most notably in respect of a number of painful conditions that do not respond to existing treatments".

Prosecutor Senior Constable Neth Livett said when police raided Mr Selan's Murrumbeena house at on March 17 this year they saw a "backyard full of large cannabis plants", each about two metres tall later found to weigh a rootless 12.3 kilograms.
Senior Constable Livett said the plants were in pots labelled with names such as "Cream Caramel", "Ultra Lemon" and "Sour Spider" and that other items, including ground cannabis, buds, stems and plant branches were found.
"Police observed multiple videos on [Selam's] mobile phone where he is seen to pan around the backyard while giving a running commentary about the progress of the crop," he said.
Senior Constable Livett told Ms Bazzani that police accepted the drug was for Mr Selan's personal use and that he told investigators why he grew it and that he had used cannabis for his condition.
Mr Selan pleaded guilty to a charge of cultivating while his wife, who was also arrested on the day, was assessed for the court's less formal diversion program.

Mr Furstenberg said Mr Selan plans to emigrate later this year to Spain, which has a more "liberal and scientific approach" to medical marijuana use.
Ms Bazzani agreed with Mr Furstenberg the case presented a "very unusual situation indeed", but she would not comment on the issue of the law and cannabis and current medical thinking and treatment.
Ms Bizzani did, however, accept the "highly unusual" nature of the case, noted that Mr Selan had no prior convictions, had been honest with police and was a family man who suffered a "terribly debilitating illness".

She felt "persuaded" by the submissions that she should take a "compassionate approach" given Mr Selan had used marijuana for "medical purposes" due to his ill health.
He was released on a non-conviction, undertaking to be of good behaviour for 12 months.
Outside court, Mr Selan told Fairfax Media that the symptoms of his disease "left me" when he used marijuana, and that when he ran out of "quality cannabis, my symptoms returned".
He researched "heaps" of scientific data that found marijuana could help regulate the immune system and "get rid of inflammation".
"It's amazing," said Mr Selan, who ate the marijuana in food or inhaled it. "The relief it gives you, the way it works ... It's the side effects of all the [other] drugs that totally allow you not to live."

The plants' names related to their "different genetic backgrounds" while the videoing was because "I was proud of what I was doing and the progress I was making and all the hard work I was putting in, and I just wanted to show my friends".
"I wasn't hiding anything," Mr Selan said. "I made medicine for myself to enable my health to continue."
He added: "To be criminalised for using cannabis as a medication is something I was really upset about and it is one of the main reasons why I am leaving Australia."

While NSW Premier Mike Baird is considering a private members' bill to legalise marijuana for medicinal purposes, in Victoria, both sides of politics remain opposed to any proposals to liberalise the laws. Health minister David Davis has repeatedly stated the need for greater scientific evidence before cannabis could be approved for medical use, and the opposition has also stated that it has "no plans to amend Victoria's drug laws to decriminalise marijuana".

Victorian couple Cassie Batten and Rhett Wallace face possible charges for using cannabis oil to treat their three-year-old son’s severe epilepsy. They were questioned by the Epping Sex Offences and Child Abuse Investigation team earlier in July and their cannabis oil seized.


Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/m...-conviction-20140731-zyy7g.html#ixzz39BVpO39D
 
Medical marijuana back on agenda, as SA MP Tammy Franks arranged parliamentary talks

MEDICINAL marijuana is back on South Australia’s political agenda, with state MPs to discuss its potential use at a round table meeting in coming weeks.

Greens MLC Tammy Franks will head the talks, which she will formalise today through a motion in parliament calling for all parties and independents to support legitimate discussion of the issue.

Ms Franks said many South Australians had contacted her office to raise the issue, including parents of young children suffering from debilitating conditions that could be treated with medicinal marijuana.

She said it was a debate SA had been slow to consider.

A report on the issue was tabled in the NSW Parliament and, last month, while NSW Liberal Premier Mike Baird last month said he was sympathetic to the push to legalise marijuana for medicinal use.

“We need to start a conversation in SA to put the needs of people living with chronic pain, challenging and devastating conditions, who could have their quality of life improved, front and centre,” Ms Franks said.

“They deserve to have parliamentarians listen to their needs and work together for a way forward.”

Ms Franks said medical cannabis did not have the same level of hallucinogen, so users did not get “high”.

It was usually delivered through oil or a spray.

Adelaide mum Bianca Henderson said she wanted marijuana for medical use to be legalised in SA to give her son Declan another treatment option.

Declan, 9, suffers from a rare form of epilepsy which cannot be managed with available medication.

It has caused him further injury and he now requires a wheelchair and has brain damage.

“We’ve tried medication after medication and some have horrific side effects. He’s been hospitalised after becoming toxic with prescription medication,” she said.

With a poll and user comments -

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/...liamentary-talks/story-fni6uo1m-1227015036317
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top