My friend may die soon. The doctors are doing their best, but the odds are not good. It would be a shame if the last thing he ever feels is nausea and pain.

Every day he wakes up and wants to vomit. Most of his waking moments, he wants to vomit. The thought of food makes him want to vomit. Its not the illness. It's the treatment.

It makes me angry. Because there is a medicine that stops his nausea almost instantly and makes him hungry for wholesome food.

Your munchies is his life saver.

Recognition of the medical uses of cannabis is growing around the world. Canada allows cannabis for medical use. Britain is nearing completion of medical trials. Ten states in the USA voted by referenda to allow medical use, although they are under severe pressure from the Federal government to back down.

Here in Aotearoa people are still being arrested, charged, convicted and sometimes jailed for using cannabis for medicine.

In the past weeks the issue has hit the headlines again. Steve Chadwick, the Chair of Parliament’s Health Select Committee spoke out in favour of allowing marijuana for medicinal use. Peter (Capt Sensible) Dunne, leader of United Future, jumped in to squash the idea immediately, saying this was somehow driven by my 'delusional obsession with cannabis'.

Why I'm responsible for what Steve Chadwick thinks, I'm not sure. More importantly, doesn't he care about the thousands of New Zealanders in serous and debilitating pain? The people suffering the side effects of chemotherapy and HIV medication? The difficulties faced by those with uncontrollable spasms, such as people with multiple sclerosis?

Because the evidence is now overwhelming that many people suffering these conditions can have their symptoms relieved by the use of cannabis.

In response to Peter Dunne's demands, Health minister Annette King ruled out any movement on the issue until the results of the British trials, expected later this year. Never mind what the Health Select Committee says. Because, of course, according to Steve Chadwick it is likely to recommend change.

United Future wants to make the committee irrelevant. A major condition of United Future's propping up of the Government is that any move to change our drug laws is dead in the water. So in Capt Sensible's world, medical marijuana must be opposed because it is 'the thin end of the wedge'.

Talk about delusional obsession.

The select committee needs to ensure that it doesn't pander to knee jerk opposition by toning down its findings. It needs to think about what is best for patients, not for politicians or pharmaceutical companies.

One of the characteristics of medical marijuana, like any herbal medicine, is that it is difficult to patent. Therefore it is hard to get funding for clinical trials. I believe that the government should fund clinical trials, as a public good.

Opposition to medical marijuana is often simply because it is not a synthetic pill. This is an advantage for eg. nausea, where swallowing a pill is difficult. The effects are more or less instantaneous, so controlling dosage is simple. Lung damage can be avoided through the use of a vapouriser, which vapourises the active ingredients without burning the vegetable matter and so avoids smoke and tars.

In Britain GW Pharmaceuticals is conducting trials on a whole-plant extract, which is sprayed under the tongue. They believe the method of administration can be patented, hence funding for trials. However broader research is needed, such as which strains (with their distinct cannabinoid profiles) are most useful for which medical conditions.

But conducting trials should not be an excuse for inaction. People who have the written support of a doctor or clinician should be exempt from prosecution for personal use or possession of cannabis immediately. Parliament should pass a law to this effect, and Green co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons is trying to introduce a private members bill to do just that. Whether she will get to introduce it, or it gets very far if she does, is anyone's guess at this stage.

Failing a law change, the government's purchase agreement with the police could be changed to persuade them not to prosecute medical cannabis offenses.

The possibilities are there. Unfortunately the reality is that as long as the government chooses to depend on Peter Dunne and United Future for support, change will not happen, regardless of what the evidence, and a sense of compassion, says.

So much for common sense.

There has been just one important thing in my life in the last month - the birth of my baby daughter. Still, coming back to work has not been all bad.

The cannabis inquiry is moving slowly along, with the first draft of the report before us in March. Unfortunately all but 3 members are new to the committee and did not hear the submissions.

It will be a slow process working through various drafts, trying to get agreement on the wording. It will be clause by clause, line by line - parliamentary urban warfare.

My Clean Slate bill (to wipe minor convictions if you have not reoffended) is also going through a select committee along with the government version. I am trying to get the government to agree to some aspects of mine. The government bill only applies to non-custodial sentences, where mine includes sentences of 6 months or less in prison. Even if I don’t succeed the bill will be a victory.

Craig McNair scored an own goal when he dobbed me in to the cops. As well as persecuting me because of my faith, he demonstrated what a waste of police time prohibition is. He has now returned to obscurity.

On the negative side, the government is making methamphetamine ‘class A’. The Greens will be the only party to oppose this. Not because we like P - I have consistently opposed its use. But making it class A will not stop people making it, selling it, buying it or using it. Spending more money on drug education, and on treatment, might.

They say it will make P a higher police priority. The police could reprioritise tomorrow if they wanted, or the government could alter their purchase agreement to make them.

Neither will the maximum life sentence for manufacturing and supplying class A be a deterrent. The actual sentences given for manufacturing class A and class B drugs over the past ten years have been about the same. Some years there may be an difference of a couple of months, some years there is none at all.

Its all about making Jim Anderton, New Zealand’s wannabe drug Tsar, look important.

Norml News

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