Our courageous politicians have decided that medicinal cannabis will now be a permitted export to cash in on growing world demand for this product. The only problem is that they have failed to make it legally available for the Australian users who are still forced to break the law and obtain their supples from criminal elements.
What many will find even more farcial. To enable competitive pricing, cannabis oil will also be a permitted import into Australia. So we expect to make money from the booming European, Canadian and US medical markets, but this same product can not be legally prescribed by doctors in this country.
Cannabis oil has been a proven relief for treating chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, chronic non-cancer pain and palliative care. Numerous tests have proven its worth and yet political foot dragging has prevented it emerging as a legal drug accepted by the Therapeutic Goods Administration. ( TGA).
The main problem is that the politicians are spooked by the cannabis oil link to Marijuana. For decades we have had implacable opposition to all forms of addictive drugs and there is a fear that politicians who vote for legalization will be tainted with a " soft on drugs " reason to repel voters.
Marijuana was perfectly legal in Australia until it got scooped up in a drug panic in the 1950's. Youth elements world wide started experimenting with substances that delivered a " high " and this included LSD. Heroin use became popular and suddenly we were in a drug frenzy that has outgrown law enforcements ability to control.
Marijuana is no more addictive than alcohol, and it is fast gaining legality in many parts of the world. In America there is the situation that it remains an illegal product under Federal law and has become a legal product under state law in many areas. As a result, banks are reluctant to extend banking services to Marijuana shops and proprietors need to enable their own money security. The trend to legality is spreading to a host of countries.
President Trump urgently needs a distraction to draw public attention away from the investigation into his election tactics and it seems likely he will force Federal authorities to crack down on state Marijuana sales. As a consequence, the use of medicinal cannabis in the United States may be a unforseen casualty.
The fact that medical cannabis remains in a legal vacuum here in Australia is a disgrace. Both Federal and state politicians are guilty of paying lip service to the need to confer legality - but at the same time moving at glacial speed to actually enact the laws that will make that happen.
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