Australia has no reason to disallow Medicinal Cannabis use…….
March 26, 2014 By Alex Wodak and Lawrence Mather
A growing number of countries allow the
use of cannabis for medical reasons while
prohibiting recreational use..
A newspaper report of the case had a poll
about whether cultivating medicinal cannabis
should be allowed, and 96% of respondents
agreed.
Indeed, community support for medicinal
cannabis has been strong for a while.
A
2010
survey
conducted
for
the
Commonwealth Department of Health found
69% of respondents supported medicinal
cannabis use, and 74% supported having
clinical trials. These results have changed
little between 2010 and 2014.
Empty support
International acceptance of medicinal
cannabis is growing because it can
provide relief for people who can’t be
sufficiently
helped
with
current
pharmaceutical drugs. But despite
growing evidence of its usefulness in
certain situations, medical use of
cannabis remains illegal in Australia.
In the last week, the US state of Utah has
made the medical use of cannabis legal
and Alabama is awaiting gubernatorial
approval to do the same. This means
more than 20 states in the US now permit
the medical use of cannabis, but such
benign use remains not only unattainable
but also illegal in Australia.
Earlier this month, for instance, a 59year-old South Australian man with
leukaemia was sentenced to two years in
jail for cultivating cannabis. He’d
previously been caught growing the plant
to help his wife endure the side effects of
chemotherapy for her lymphoma.
Medicinal cannabis use was lawful in
Australia until the 19