Queensland could have looked at a compassionate scheme to not prosecute people using whole plant medicinal cannabis, the state’s One Nation MP says.
Member for Buderim Steve Dickson said in that New South Wales police were given guidelines not to prosecute terminally ill people found with small amounts of cannabis.
"We did not use that component in the Queensland legislation where governments will not prosecute people that are using whole plant medicinal cannabis," Mr Dickson said.
"That is the compassionate part of their legislation in New South Wales that is my understanding and maybe it is something in hindsight that we could have taken up here which probably would have filled that gap in the middle. We have not."
Mr Dickson was speaking at a parliamentary committee hearing into a private member’s bill he introduced in February.
Queensland passed laws in 2016 to allow doctors to apply for access to medicinal cannabis for patients but products still need to be imported from overseas before domestic supply becomes available.
That means some people are having difficulty accessing medicinal cannabis quickly and cheaply.
"I cannot predict the time that that drug will be grown here in Queensland and made available to people who need it legally," Mr Dickson said.
Mr Dickson said people were being forced to turn to the black market to access medicinal cannabis illegally.
"These people have nowhere to go except to try to access more black-market, whole-plant medicinal cannabis for epilepsy, for brain tumours, for cancer," he said.
"This has driven me to a point where I believe that I needed to do something."
Mr Dickson said the discretion not to charge people for compassionate reasons was not included in the government’s bill in 2016.
"I am not casting aspersions upon anybody. I think it was an oversight and it is something that maybe we should have put into that bill," he said.
Mr Dickson cited medicinal cannabis as his reason for leaving the LNP but members of his former party voiced their doubt.
His private member’s bill would compel Health Minister Cameron Dick to take steps to make sure whole plant medicinal cannabis was affordable.
It would also ask Mr Dick to lobby the Commonwealth to make sure importing whole plant medicinal cannabis was possible from "particular foreign manufacturers".
His bill also calls on the state or federal governments to subsidise the cost of treatment with whole plant medicinal cannabis from overseas.
Growing whole plants for personal medicinal use remains illegal and patients accessing products must get approval from their doctor.
Mr Dickson said he proposed his bill because people were ill and urgently needed access to the product.
"This is about sick and dying people who are using an illegal product today who are scared that the police will be knocking on their door any old night and that they may be charged for trying to keep their children and family alive," he said.
Mr Dickson said it was his understanding that he could not direct the government to spend money or grant an amnesty because he could not direct the government to do something illegal, which is why he crafted his bill in that manner.
"I would have loved to have put a bill forward that says to grant amnesty, but I am not allowed to under parliamentary guidelines," he said.
"This is the best bill that I could put forward."
Mr Dickson said if the government wanted to propose an amnesty, they could "do it this afternoon in that house".
"We have a unicameral government here in Queensland. If the government of the day decides to put a bill forward to the house, they can make any decision they like," he said.
A spokeswoman for Police Minister Mark Bailey said it was illegal to possess, produce, supply and traffic dangerous drugs, including cannabis.
"Cannabis and cannabis products are dangerous drugs in Queensland under the legislation and while there are no exemptions for unauthorised activity of this nature in this state, Queensland’s dangerous drugs laws do not prevent the Therapeutic Goods Administration from approving a substance for therapeutic use in Australia," the spokeswoman said.
"The Queensland Police Service will continue to enforce the dangerous drug laws as they apply under the DMA for all offences relating to illicit cannabis products, with the exception of those administered under therapeutic schemes authorised by law."
The closing date for submissions on the bill is April 27.
News Moderator: Katelyn Baker
Full Article: One Nation MP Wanted Qld Police To Treat Dying Cannabis Users The Way NSW Does
Author: Felicity Caldwell
Contact: 07 3835 7500
Photo Credit: Tony Moore
Website: Brisbane Times
