Sick patients arrested

Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party
Media Release 14 February 2007

Doctors and Labour Party agree sick patients should be arrested

For the many sick people who are desperate enough to risk expensively - and often dangerously - engaging with the NZ cannabis black market, in order to obtain the most effective medicine for their condition, there are no valentines this year. The same is true of those medpot users who risk home, income and peace of mind to grow their own cannabis.

Instead of using relatively cheap and easily accessible pharmaceutically supplied medications they run the risk because cannabis works for them in ways that the highly addictive and potentially lethal prescription medicines do not. Many of those legal drugs have nasty side effects, for example hangovers, as though users had been up partying all night. But they haven't been enjoying a party at all. Chronic pain and discomfort is no way to live.

Earlier this week it was revealed that the Ministry of Health very quietly acknowledged last October that there is "sufficient evidence of safety and efficacy of cannabis in some medical conditions." However, the next day political expedience raised its ugly head. Perhaps concerned about a grip on power that depends on support from prohibitionists Peter Dunne and Jim Anderton, PM Helen Clark denied that a law change for medicinal cannabis users might happen any time soon. This, despite the fact that there will be a Medicinal Cannabis Use bill before parliament in May.

Cannabis is an amazing and complicated plant. A few current NZ doctors understand and privately acknowledge its efficacy. But they are unwilling to jump through all the very many hoops that politicians and Ministry of Health boffins have set up to thwart medpot users accessing cannabis legally. The red tape process is so involved it is like saying NO. The oft-mentioned medical exemption is a 'clayton's' exemption because although medicinal users are guaranteed access to cannabis - under the UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, and also nominally here by the 1975 Misuse of Drugs Act - our politicians, doctors and bureaucrats feel they must continue to save face at the expense of sick people, and wait for pharmaceutical companies. This is rather cruel and inhumane treatment, which ultimately might be very expensive.

However, it is heartening that some of our judiciary are ahead of the game. Increasingly in recent years there has been acceptance in judgements that some court defendants are using for genuine medical reasons. Sometimes penalities have been at the lower end of the scale. The police also do occasionally use their discretionary powers and dispose of cannabis plant material instead of charging people with possessing it.

It has been clear to the ALCP and much of the rest of the world that pharmaceutical companies have been trying for years to make patentable drugs from cannabis. It is impossible to slap a patent on a plant in order to make legal drug money from it, so they must painstakingly separate out each chemical from the plant, and find a particular illness that might be effectively treated with it. And study it at great length and therefore cost. When finally permitted into the country sometime in the distant future will these drugs be expensive and subsidised by Pharmac ? Hell yes, it is possible that you the Kiwi taxpayer will be responsible for paying.

It is also worth pointing out that only a tiny fraction of this extensive corporate research has been reported on by NZ media and as a result the general public are blissfully unaware of how effective cannabis can be as a medicine. Unofficial conservative estimates of how many thousand Kiwi patients would benefit from medpot use range from 10,000-15,000. It is likely to be much higher in the future.

Don't anyone be fooled either by the pernicious argument that smoking is the only way to obtain benefits from the plant. There are other devices and delivery methods already in common use here, including vapourisers, tea and food products. That argument is a red herring. So why should medpot users wait years while pharmaceutical corporations and politicians conduct more trials ?

Yes, it is a politically contentious issue, and public ignorance is the biggest factor. The ALCP have been told by police and other powers-that-be that until they hear it "from the community" there is little chance that cannabis use will be 'tolerated.' Others say show us the evidence, we need more research. But despite the stigma there are still many people silently supporting the issue . . . regulate it, make it available carefully. Change the hypocritical approach.

Immediate regulation in NZ should proceed. The failure and unintended consequences of cannabis prohibition – the worse being the abuse of patients – deserves public scrutiny and derision.

There is no credible reason for delay.

ENDS