New Zealand: government urged to expand medical cannabis bill

New Zealand seeks to legalize the medical use of cannabis. In the current proposal, Under the new law, only terminally ill patients with less than a year to live would be protected from the illicit use of cannabis. New Zealand MPs have been asked to provide more protection for medical use than is proposed.

The director of NZ Drug Foundation, Ross Bell, said to MPs on the first day of the bill's hearings that the bill was not good enough, and that it should be extended to cover serious or incapacitating pathologies.

«Focusing only on terminally ill patients is not good enough, and in reality, These patients are not arrested by the police, but many others are. And the way the police use their discretion means that a lot of people are still being prosecuted.»

Ross Bell also called for the same status to be applied to patient carers.

«The aptly-named «green fairies», the people who administer the drugs or grow them, you know. And I think again you're going to hear stories of people who are on their deathbeds or who are so severely physically limited that they can't access their medications, or can't administer them to themselves.»

Last February, a proposal for medical legalization was aborted at the end of the first reading. It reflected the country's desire to legalize the medical use of cannabis within 100 days and would have allowed anyone suffering from an incapacitating or terminal pathology to consume and cultivate medical cannabis, the latter part of which clearly frightened some of the deputies.

Chloé Swarbirck, the Green Member of Parliament who presented the first bill and supports the new one, has already identified limits, notably in the protection of caregivers.

Visit latest survey, 77% of New Zealanders support the medical use of cannabis. Some New Zealand companies are also eagerly awaiting the passage of the bill to start growing and exporting medical cannabis.