provided her with a sublingual tincture prepared from carefully selected cannabis plants. It led to substantial improvement and she was able to reduce her morphine dosage with its associated side effects”. For showing such compassion and understanding, he was charged with professional misconduct.“ Cannabis can be used to relieve an enormous amount of pain and suffering and is safer to use than Panadol”, Dr Andrew Katelaris, June 2015 The Sydney Morning Herald reported in August, 2006 that a Sydney doctor who grew 49,519‘ cannabis’ plants would not serve a custodial sentence. Dr Katelaris was convicted of one count of cultivating not less than a large commercial quantity of cannabis after drug squad detectives raided his property where he was growing a half hectare crop of hemp. He grew the plants on his property near Dungog in the NSW Hunter Valley in 2005, having been involved in industrial hemp research and medical cannabis experimentation since 1989. The court was told the crop had a low tetrahydrocannabinol( THC) content, making it of no value as a‘ drug’. During sentencing submissions, the court was told Dr Katelaris’ licence as a medical practitioner in NSW had been revoked for three years with the NSW Medical Tribunal banning Dr Katelaris over the self-administration of cannabis and for supplying it to some patients.
The Judge told the court Dr Katelaris would not be imprisoned, however, he was to be charged for possession of cannabis when police officers discovered him trying to bring a plant into the courtroom! At the 2006 hearing the Judge said he had no idea what the appropriate penalty was for growing a crop that, while prohibited, had been found to be so low in THC that it was practically useless as a recreational‘ drug’. Dr Katelaris was acquitted on the possession charge but his indignation on being found guilty of cultivating a commercial quantity of hemp led to a further prosecution for contempt of court, after he likened the jury to a“ group of twelve sheep”. Fighting that charge, he said the judge in the case was“ morbidly obese” and“ his ego was bruised by the fact he could not stay awake” during the trial, but this defence did not persuade the judge and he was convicted and placed on a three-year good behaviour bond.
In 2012, asked about the ethical issues raised by breaking the law, Dr Katelaris said,“ It is not a matter of ethics, it is about the scientific evidence that overwhelmingly shows that cannabis has a beneficial effect on the symptoms of severe disease including spinal spasticity and MS, HIV and cancer. The illegality stems from racist and corrupt laws put in place in the US in the 1930’ s. The law should serve humans, but instead the cannabis laws cause harm and serve to persecute a most disadvantaged group in society. Because of the illegality there is a $ 5- billion black market with profits mostly going to organised crime. What are the ethics of forcing sick people to go to criminals?”
Since 1989 he has been experimenting with the medicinal uses of cannabis. Initially to assist in the management of chronic pain and spasticity, and the results were very encouraging, in most cases, improving pain control whilst reducing the need for narcotics. In 2013 he obtained cannabidiol( CBD) dominant cannabis seeds from Spain and began experimenting with this to control the seizures of children afflicted with intractable epilepsy( the major cause of preventable brain damage). Intractable epilepsy is, by definition, any seizure disorder that cannot be controlled by current medication.