New Zealand Medicinal Cannabis Bill

The Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party are calling on all MPs to support an extremely important piece of legislation that will be before the house on Wednesday 1st of July.

Metiria Turei's Medicinal Cannabis Bill will make it legal for patients with severe or life threatening illnesses and injuries to access the medicine they need. For many patients, the only medicine that works to relieve their suffering is Cannabis.

Cannabis is already legally available in New Zealand on prescription from a doctor. The pharmaceutical cannabis preparation Sativex has been approved for a number of patients. However many people in need cannot afford Sativex or they prefer to source there essential medicine elsewhere. Metia Turei's Bill will increase access to this important medicine by allowing patients or their caregivers to grow their own cannabis. By allowing those patients most in need to grow their own medicine, they will no longer have to risk buying from the black market and will no longer have to fear arrest and imprisonment.

Emeritus Professor Lester Grinspoon from Harvard Medical School, believes that Cannabis will be the world's most important medical drug in the 21st century. The reason cannabis is such an effective medicine, with thousands of years of use, is because it contains over 60 active therapeutic compounds. The cannabis plant can be breed for different levels of these cannabinoids, and specific strains have been developed to treat specific ailments, such as ADHD. Scientists can also isolate specific compounds in cannabis to create unique new medicines.

At present Sativex is the sole cannabis product on the market. While it is effective for many conditions including MS, others conditions such as chronic pain require an Indica rather than Sativa based preparation. Metiria's Bill will allow for a more diverse range of cannabis products to be made available, to better suit the needs of patients. Concerns about the smoking of cannabis medicine, can be addressed by the use of a number of alternative delivery methods, including vaporisation, oral ingestion, ointment or spray. While cannabis has a bad reputation due to its illegal status, all of the uses of this medicine can be referenced to scientific studies. Cannabis has been scientifically shown to be 100% non toxic, non addictive and has never caused a single death from overdose.

The scientific and lay literature of the medical effectiveness of cannabis is extensive. There are numerous conclusive studies which show that cannabis reduces the growth of cancer tumors, including studies conducted at the University of Otago. Some conditions like Glaucoma, can only be effectively treated with cannabis. When made into a skin balm, cannabis is an effective remedy for both Arthritis and Melanoma.

Hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders are in desperate need of this medicine. Only the most heartless and uncaring members of parliament could vote against the compassionate use of cannabis. Already the hard-line USA has approved medical marijuana in many states. Not to follow suit here would cause outrage throughout the New Zealand medical marijuana community, not to mention years of needless suffering for thousands of people.

Below are some of that conditions that cannabis is effective treatment for:

Appetite Loss Arthritis Asthma Addiction Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Anxiety Disorders AIDS Wasting Syndrome Attention Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Autism Aversive Memories Bipolar Affective Disorder Brain Injury/Stroke Cancer (including Breast cancer, Cervical cancer, Lung cancer, Skin cancer) Depression Dystonia Epilepsy Fibromyalgia Glaucoma Migraine Nausea Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) Chemo Related Nausea Chronic Pain Diabetes Hepatitis C High Blood Pressure/Hypertension Lymphoma Migraine Mental Illness Multiple Sclerosis Movement Disorders Musculoskeletal Disorders Neuroprotection Nail Patella Syndrome Parkinson's disease Pancreatitis Rheumatoid Arthritis Sickle Cell Disease Schizophrenia Skin allergies Sleep Apnea Tourette-Syndrome Ulcerative Depression, Violent, uncontrollable outbursts in children

By Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party
Source: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0906/S00293.htm