Medical Cannabis

The Hon. S.W. KEY (Ashford) (16:16): It is interesting that both the member for Davenport and the member for Fisher have been looking into the area of drugs, and drugs in our community. I want to talk about something on a slightly different level, in that I am really keen, as a result of phone calls I have had and people who have spoken to me about South Australia looking at the clinical trials and introduction of cannabis products.

As we know, New South Wales has had these trials going for quite some time. In December 2014, the New South Wales government said that there would be three clinical trials to explore the use of cannabis and cannabis products in providing relief, first of all, for children with severe drug-resistant epilepsy, through a partnership with The Sydney Children's Hospitals Network; adults with terminal illness, focusing on improving quality of life and symptoms such as pain, nausea and vomiting; and adults with chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting where standard treatment had proved to be ineffective.

Although a number of members may find this unusual, I have been very supportive of the approach taken by the New South Wales Premier, Mike Baird, and also the Minister for Medical Research, Pru Goward, when they said:

We do not want patients or carers having to play pharmacist—that is why it is so important to explore the safest and most effective ways we can deliver compassionate care and improve the quality of life.

They went on to say that their trials, they believe, will help New South Wales be at the forefront of world-class research in this area, and explore how they can complement the palliative care treatments and therapies patients receive. Also at this time the AMA New South Wales President, Dr Saxon Smith, while welcoming the New South Wales program on this matter, warned that it was important to distinguish between using cannabis as a medical treatment and using it as a recreational drug. He also stated that there can be health risks associated with using marijuana and cannabis, as well as additional potential harm for smoking it. Using it as a medical treatment, on the other hand, is about isolating the chemicals with potential use as medicines and identifying how they can help patients.

I am raising this in particular because I have been made aware of a number of people who are suffering from a number of different serious ailments, in some cases terminal illnesses. They have been using marijuana and different cannabis products to assist their particular medical situation.

While in the cases I have heard about people seem to think this has been helpful to them, I am very worried about the fact that, as I said earlier, people are basically acting as pharmacists without the information that they need to know for what they are doing. I am particularly concerned if people are smoking marijuana because we all know the health problems with smoking anything let alone marijuana.

While this might seem a very interesting position for me to take, I would urge the South Australian government to closely monitor what is happening in New South Wales. I am advised by minister Vlahos that, in fact, this is what has been happening, and also minister Snelling, that we have been following the New South Wales trials and that we will be looking to them to see what application is appropriate in South Australia. I hope that this matter can be dealt with very quickly because there are a number of people out there who really need this support and this medical treatment.