Tasmania Has a Unique Opportunity to Grow Medicinal Cannabis for Other States, Writes Dr Alex Wodak IN the 1960s, Daniel Grinspoon, the teenage son of a Harvard university psychiatry professor, developed acute leukaemia. Unfortunately, Daniel developed severe nausea and vomiting after chemotherapy. All of the latest treatments were tried but nothing helped stop or even reduce poor Daniel's persistent nausea and vomiting. Someone suggested to Professor Grinspoon that cannabis might work. And it did. Professor Grinspoon then started doing research on medicinal cannabis. [continues 705 words]
A PARLIAMENTARY inquiry into legalisation of cannabis for medical purposes is expected to receive a huge response when it opens for submissions this week. A major Tasmanian poppy processor yesterday voiced support for a trial despite the State Government citing poppy industry opposition as one of the reasons for opposing any trials. TPI Enterprises managing director Jarrod Ritchie said yesterday he could not understand the Government's logic. The Cressy-based company makes poppy straw concentrate. Mr Ritchie said he could not understand why poppy growers' representatives would oppose a Tasmanian trial. [continues 168 words]
Minister's Talks on Trials THE State Government will today be lobbied to trial medical marijuana in Tasmania, while the state's peak medical body say they are doubtful they would support such tests. Australian Medical Association state president Dr Tim Greenaway said that ultimately its position would be decided at a federal level but it was his "own belief that it's doubtful they would support trials". "The AMA has major concerns about the use of medicinal marijuana as it is the third most addictive drug and is also associated with mental health issues," he said. "While there is anecdotal evidence it can be helpful for people with significant nausea associated with chemotherapy more evidence is needed." [end]
A GENETIC link between marijuana and schizophrenia may have been discovered in a groundbreaking study of more than 2000 Australians. The study - led by King's College London and involving the Queensland Brain Institute and the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute - examined the genetic risk profile of 2082 otherwise healthy Australians. Researchers found the genes known to be associated with schizophrenia were more often found in those 1011 people who had used cannabis - or used it in greater quantities. Writing in Molecular Psychiatry, the researchers suggest the same genes might be responsible for cannabis use and schizophrenia, countering the popularly held belief that smoking the drug increases the risk of the mental illness. [continues 411 words]
Sam Aulton has been forced to break the law to try and save her life. With cancer waging a terrifying war on her fragile frame, the young Maitland woman turned to cannabis oil in a bid to extend her life and ease her pain. But instead of the drug yielding the outcome she had hoped for, Ms Aulton's health deteriorated. She believes if the drug was legalised for medical purposes her outcome could have been different. "I'm not angry but if this drug was decriminalised then I would have been monitored by the professionals and not forced to go down this - -unprotected path," she said. [continues 535 words]
PROPONENTS of medicinal cannabis will today ask federal MPs to allow sick people legal access to the drug. Drug expert Alex Wodak and Lucy Halam - who is forced to illegally source marijuana for her terminally ill son, Dan - will meet MPs of all political persuasions in a push for the right for doctors to be able to prescribe marijuana. Hosted by a Greens, Liberal and Labor MP, the Parliamentary Group on Drug Policy and Law Reform hopes to take evidence to Health Minister Peter Dutton to argue for easier access for the sick. Greens senator Richard DiNatale said: "This is one of those areas where public opinion is well ahead of where politicians are." Fellow co-convener, Liberal MP Sharman Stone, said people continually raised the issue with her. [end]
The Deputy State Coroner has recommended that NSW prison cells should be subject to random searches at afternoon lockdown, after the overdose death of a female inmate highlighted the endemic nature of prison drug use. TracyLee Brannigan, 41, died from a heroin overdose at Dillwynia Correctional Centre while locked in her cell on the night of February 24 last year. In handing down his findings in relation to Ms Brannigan's death on Monday, Deputy Coroner Paul MacMahon said there was evidence that 75 per cent of women inmates in NSW had "drug addiction issues". He acknowledged that steps were being taken to address this problem, but found that most drug taking occurred after inmates were locked in for the night. [end]
Nowra woman Sarah* hates feeling like a criminal because she is giving cannabis to her dying husband. John*, who is in his 40s, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of oral cancer in February when he was given six to 12 months to live. Drastic surgery saw most of his tongue and the floor of his mouth removed, while a skin graft was taken from his arm to form a new tongue. He is now fed through a tube in his stomach and has had trouble speaking, swallowing and sleeping. [continues 323 words]
THE campaign to ease the suffering of terminally ill patients by legalising medicinal cannabis is gaining momentum, with high-profile Nationals minister Barnaby Joyce adding his voice to the groundswell of support for cancer sufferer Dan Haslam. Mr Joyce revealed he has had a change of heart from his usual tough stance on drugs after meeting 24-year-old Mr Haslam and his family, who are forced to break the law so that he can use cannabis to treat his severe pain and nausea from chemotherapy. [continues 405 words]
State Parliament National MP's Proposal Premier Mike Baird has left open the possibility he may support a private member's bill to decriminalise the use of cannabis for medicinal purposes, promising that the government would give it "careful consideration". The Nationals MP for Tamworth, Kevin Anderson, will draft a bill that would allow the terminally ill to use cannabis. The move follows publicity around the case of one of Mr Anderson's constituents, 24-year-old Dan Haslam, who has been using cannabis to relieve nausea associated with chemotherapy to treat his terminal cancer. [continues 377 words]
A NSW government MP has broken ranks with his colleagues and will introduce legislation to legalise cannabis for terminally ill patients. Nationals lower house MP Kevin Anderson met Premier Mike Baird on Wednesday and told him he was going to introduce his bill despite the government's opposition to legalising medicinal cannabis. He shared with Mr Baird the story of 24-year-old Dan Haslam, who has terminal bowel cancer and has been forced to use cannabis illegally to treat his pain and nausea. "The Premier was sympathetic and listened intently while I explained the issue to him and the circumstances surrounding my decision to try and change the laws," Mr Anderson said in a statement. [continues 117 words]
NIMBIN'S 22nd annual Mardi Grass - a festival supporting the legalisation of cannabis that includes a bong-throwing competition, joint rolling events and a hemp rope tug of war - has been blitzed by police. A total of 86 people were nabbed for driving under the influence of a prohibited drug and five people were caught drink driving The annual festival, which attracted up to 10,000 people over the weekend and offers visitors tips about what to do if you get pulled over by police, was closely watched by Richmond local area command police. [continues 100 words]
CHERI O'Connell says she would rather move her family overseas than accept medical marijuana from an underground supplier. On Sunday she said that several underground marijuana growers had offered to provide her with the medical cannabis needed to treat her daughter Tara's epilepsy. Ms O'Connell said she did not want to get involved with people who grew marijuana illegally and sold it to people for recreational purposes. She said that buying marijuana from underground dealers could have legal ramifications for herself and her family, which was a risk she was not willing to take. [continues 273 words]
Experimenting with cannabis on a casual basis damages the brain permanently, research has found. It is far from being a "safe" drug and no one under the age of 30 should ever use it, experts said. People who had only used it once or twice a week for a matter of months were found to have changes in the brain that govern emotion, motivation and addiction. Researchers from Harvard Medical School carried out detailed 3D scans on the brains of students who used cannabis casually and were not addicted and compared them with those who had never used it. [continues 285 words]
Workplace drug testing tipped to rise I have used drugs and that is why I am coming forward to tell my story. I am a lawyer and my drug use has no connection with my job. It is a choice I have made. I have had some positive experience with drugs, and of course some bad ones. I have had marijuana and laughed a great deal, but also experienced paranoia and anxiety. I have also had both good and bad experiences with hallucinogens and other drugs. [continues 843 words]
Bill Clinton famously said he did not inhale but asking a candidate for the Help End Marijuana Prohibition Party if they have smoked pot is a little pointless. But James Moylan, who has emerged as an outside chance of snaring a WA Senate seat for the HEMP Party, says he enjoys a joint once or twice a week. Sitting in a cafe in the NSW hippie haven Nimbin, Mr Moylan, 51, rates his odds of pulling off a shock upset at one in six. [continues 241 words]
EVERY day, desperate Australians are breaking the law by acquiring or growing their own marijuana to treat problems ranging from chronic pain to uncontrolled seizures and chemotherapy-induced nausea. Medical marijuana, made with cannabidiol, a component of cannabis, has been produced by drug companies in oils, sprays and tablets, which remove the uncertainty about dosing. But these therapies are out of reach to Australians because they are yet to be legalised. The story of eight-year-old epilepsy sufferer Charlotte Elliott, told in the Sunday Mail yesterday, has heightened public debate and support for medical marijuana. [continues 208 words]
After more than nine years in prison, Schapelle Corby has walked free. Wearing a hat and covering her face, Corby said nothing to reporters as she was hustled off to an exclusive resort. Schapelle Corby told an Indonesian official "I am happy" as she was led through the three-step process of release on parole on Monday amid a storming media pack in Bali. Corby, who has spent the past nine years four months and two days in Kerobokan prison, walked out of jail about 8.15am local time. It was a day of conflicting emotions for the convicted drug smuggler, with officials saying she looked nervous and had cried at the intensity of the media attention. [continues 618 words]
Schapelle Corby: Parole Granted, Set to Walk Free Which version of Schapelle Corby do you buy? Hapless beauty school dropout. Persecuted Aussie tourist. Victim of a criminal conspiracy. Latter-day Joan of Arc. Lying drug mule. Ganja Queen. Tragic dupe of her potdealing father. Magazine cover girl with selling blue eyes. Small-time bogan dope trafficker sentenced to 20 years' jail in Bali more than some terrorists for stuffing a pathetic 4.2 kilograms of cannabis into her boogie board bag. Barbecue stopper. [continues 1872 words]
SCHAPELLE Corby's family have denied the lawyer who appeared on TV claiming the convicted drug smuggler would celebrate her freedom with a "big marijuana joint" had ever worked for them. Kerry Smith-Douglas appeared on Channel Nine's Today in a bizarre interview where she was introduced as Corby's former lawyer to talk about the impending parole. "Yes, it's very exciting, there's going to be a lot of parties going on once she is released, and I can't wait," she joked. [continues 652 words]
Inside Australia
