Pubdate: Sun, 20 Apr 2003
Source: Sunday Star-Times (New Zealand)
Copyright: 2003 Sunday Star-Times
Contact:  http://www.sundaystartimes.co.nz
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1064
Author: Guyon Espiner
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

CANNABIS PILL MAY BE LEGALISED

Cannabis for medical use could be legalised if a high-powered parliamentary 
committee has its way.

The head of the health select committee inquiry into the health effects and 
legal status of cannabis is pushing to have the drug made legal for medical 
use.

Labour MP Steve Chadwick told the Sunday Star-Times she backed the move and 
was confident of getting enough support on her 11-strong committee to make 
the recommendation to government.

Chadwick also believes ministers, prevented from a blanket change to the 
legal status of cannabis under an agreement with the United Future party 
which props up the minority government, are open to allowing medical use of 
the drug.

But already United Future leader Peter Dunne is warning his party may block 
moves authorising medical use of marijuana, as he sees it as the "thin end 
of the wedge" towards softer drug laws.

Chadwick said the model the committee was considering would involve 
authorising a cannabis derivative used in a pill form, rather than allowing 
patients to smoke the drug. She said it would only be available to patients 
suffering a certain threshold of pain or illness and would have to be 
registered as a medicine under the Medicines Act 1981.

The health minister already has the power to allow patients to consume 
marijuana, although the special dispensation has never been given.

Health Minister Annette King has ruled out approvals for medicinal cannabis 
use until the results of trials in the UK are known later this year and 
said she would not comment on the issue until then.

Chadwick said allowing medical use of marijuana was now one of the key 
considerations of the committee's long awaited report, due to be released 
by the end of next month.

"They've done it in the UK and that is one that I think won't be difficult 
(to get support for)," she said. "People think they are all sitting around 
smoking it but we'd be looking at the English model which is the medical 
derivative and they use that either as a suppository or a tablet."

The government is under no obligation to pick up a committee recommendation 
but Chadwick believed ministers were "certainly more open to considering 
it" than decriminalising marijuana for recreational purposes.

Of the parties represented on the committee only United and New Zealand 
First opposed the use of medical marijuana.

Pita Paraone, the New Zealand First MP on the committee, said the benefits 
were unproven, there would be confusion about eligibility and it would send 
a poor signal about the acceptability of the drug.

Committee member Lynda Scott, a National MP and a doctor before entering 
parliament, said she would support the move provided it was adequately 
researched and prepared.

"We use morphine as doctors and that is perfectly acceptable when it is 
being prescribed," she said. "If they can prove that cannabis has medicinal 
properties, which they are doing, and can produce it in a form that would 
be a prescription drug only then there probably would be some space to 
actually look at that."

But Dunne said his party had rejected the case "after a fair degree of 
consideration" and warned his party's agreement with the government not to 
alter the legal status of cannabis was not limited just to recreational use 
of the drug.

The issue of cannabis law reform has now run through the last three 
parliaments.

A health select committee, chaired by National MP Brian Neeson, recommended 
during the 1996-1999 National-led government that the legal status of the 
drug be reconsidered. The Labour-led government which took office in 1999 
appeared willing to change the law although stalled on the issue.

In this parliament, United Future has made retaining the criminal status of 
the drug a condition of its support for the minority government.

Chadwick said the committee was also looking at other measures within those 
constraints including allowing those found with small amounts of the drug 
to be assessed on health rather than criminal grounds if it was their first 
offence.
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