{"id":4850,"date":"2015-10-12T18:04:36","date_gmt":"2015-10-12T18:04:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.420magazine.com\/?p=3845"},"modified":"2015-10-12T18:04:36","modified_gmt":"2015-10-12T18:04:36","slug":"australia-turnbull-foolish-to-stand-in-the-way-of-medical-marijuana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/australia-turnbull-foolish-to-stand-in-the-way-of-medical-marijuana\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia: Turnbull \u2018Foolish\u2019 To Stand In The Way Of Medical Marijuana"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/australia-turnbull-foolish-to-stand-in-the-way-of-medical-marijuana\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><p>Richard Di Natale? is forging ahead with his bid to legalise medical marijuana and warns the Turnbull government would be foolish to stand in the way.<\/p>\n<p>The Greens leader will ask the Senate to vote on his bill \u2013 co-sponsored by Liberal, Labor and crossbench senators \u2013 next month and he&#8217;s calling on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to get on board to ensure its success.<\/p>\n<p>Senator Di Natale will personally press Mr Turnbull for his support when the pair meet in Canberra this week.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think there&#8217;s a groundswell of support for it now and the government would have to be particularly foolish to stand in the way of getting this reform through,&#8221; Senator Di Natale told Fairfax Media.<\/p>\n<p>His challenge comes just days after Victoria announced it wants to legalise marijuana cultivation for the treatment of serious conditions like cancer, multiple sclerosis and HIV\/AIDS. Senator Di Natale says Victoria cannot proceed with its plan without Commonwealth legislation.<\/p>\n<p>His bill would set up a new medical marijuana regulator to oversee the production, distribution and use of the drug. A Senate committee strongly backed the bill in August, despite concerns from the Health Department and the Therapeutic Goods Administration.<\/p>\n<p>But the government is yet to say whether it will support the bill.<\/p>\n<p>Sources say Health Minister Sussan Ley is reluctant to set up a new regulator and it&#8217;s understood the TGA is lobbying hard against the proposal. The TGA wants to administer medical marijuana itself, despite concerns it&#8217;s ill-equipped to deal with herbal medicines.<\/p>\n<p>Ms Ley says the government is &#8220;incredibly sympathetic&#8221; towards Australians suffering from chronic pain and illness, and is working with the states to find a pathway to medicinal cannabis access.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We also strongly support evidence-based medicine and ensuring new treatments are clinically trialled and proven before being approved for public use,&#8221; she said. &#8220;The Senate committee report into this bill recommends significant structural amendments and this is something I will consider closely and continue to discuss with my parliamentary colleagues.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But Senator Di Natale says the legislation requires only minor technical changes and will soon be ready to go.<\/p>\n<p>He fears Ms Ley is planning to opt for a new phase of clinical trials, effectively delaying full legalisation.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There is overwhelming evidence of the effectiveness of medicinal cannabis for a number of conditions and it should be made available for those conditions immediately,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Simply adopting more clinical trials has the potential to delay any real change for up to five years.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Recent surveys have found more than two-thirds of Australians back the use of medical marijuana.<\/p>\n<p><img src=\"http:\/\/www.420magazine.com\/gallery\/data\/1412\/15070.jpg\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>News Moderator: Jacob Redmond <a href=\"http:\/\/www.420magazine.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">420 MAGAZINE \u00ae<\/a><br \/>\nFull Article: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/federal-politics\/political-news\/turnbull-foolish-to-stand-in-the-way-of-medical-marijuana-20151009-gk5iw7.html\" target=\"_blank\">Turnbull &#8216;Foolish&#8217; To Stand In The Way Of Medical Marijuana<\/a><br \/>\nAuthor: Adam Gartrell<br \/>\nContact: <a href=\"mailto:adam.gartrell@fairfaxmedia.com.au\">Email The Author<\/a><br \/>\nPhoto Credit: La Cruces Sun News<br \/>\nWebsite: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Sydney Morning Herald<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Richard Di Natale? is forging ahead with his bid to legalise medical marijuana and warns the Turnbull government would be&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.420magazine.com\/2015\/10\/australia-turnbull-foolish-to-stand-in-the-way-of-medical-marijuana\/\" class=\"read-more\">[Read More]<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1616,9,1,3],"tags":[4184],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4850"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4850\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}