LEGAL CANNABIS PROPOSED FOR PAIN RELIEF

Doctors will be given powers to authorise cannabis use by patients
suffering chronic pain or debilitating, degenerative or terminal illnesses,
under a radical drug law reform proposal considered by State Cabinet.

Under the changes, patients would effectively be given short-term
exemptions from criminal laws, allowing them to smoke cannabis and grow a
small number of plants for personal use during the period approved by their
doctor.

This would avoid the need to resort to the blackmarket to obtain the drug
and carers of severely debilitated patients would be given permission to
grow the plants.

The reform plan, which was released for public input by the Premier, Mr
Carr, in Parliament yesterday, aims to provide a balance between the
special needs of often terminally ill patients and community fears and
anxiety about the recreational use of cannabis among youth.

However, patients will have to get permission from their doctors before
using cannabis, will be restricted to growing no more than five small
plants and be expected to renew their use certificate, possibly after six
months.

Only patients suffering from one of a restricted list of medical conditions
would be exempt from criminal laws. These would include: AIDS and
cancer-related wasting; nausea from cancer chemotherapy; muscle spasm in
neurological disorders; and chronic pain not relieved by conventional
treatment.

The reforms were recommended by a working party of academics, including
pharmacologists, drug and pain experts, cancer and AIDS specialists and
senior legal and NSW police representatives.

The report was commissioned by Mr Carr, who asked the group, chaired by
Professor Wayne Hall of the University of NSW's National Drug and Alcohol
Research Centre, to investigate the possible medical uses of cannabis and
cannabinoid drugs.

The group reviewed world data on the safety and efficacy of using the crude
cannabis plant, usually ingested by smoking, as well as the use of highly
refined, pharmaceutically pure forms of the active ingredient of cannabis,
Tetrahydrocannabinol, often known as THC.

At present, there are no registered cannabinoid drugs registered in
Australia despite the registration of THC in America and another synthetic
form in Britain. However, because the drugs in this form are not well
absorbed when taken orally, it is unlikely they would be registered or
offered for registration by drug companies in Australia.

The working party concluded that because it was unlikely that THC would be
registered or produced synthetically locally in the short term, patients
seeking pain relief through smoking cannabis should not be prosecuted.

The move, if accepted after community consultation, would be trialled over
two years and designed to provide legal relief only until pharmaceutical
cannabinoids become available.

The working party highlighted the health risks of cannabis and endorsed its
use only as a pain management and therapeutic option for patients who do
not respond to conventional pain relief.

The Special Minister of State, Mr Della Bosca, said yesterday there would
be widespread community consultation in NSW about the report's recommendations.

"Any medical use of cannabis has to be strictly controlled. The Government
has always rejected the legalisation or decrimin-alisation of marijuana.

"But, if cannabis can relieve the suffering of people in terrible pain,
then compassion dictates we should make every effort to explore how that
can be done.

"Together with the community, the NSW Government wants to find ways to ease
the pain of people suffering from chronic medical conditions."