New Zealand has signed off on new clinical trials for testing the medicinal benefits of marijuana. In the future they plan in issuing medical marijuana cards to qualified patients.
In an unusual turn of events, New Zealand, which has generally been opposed to legalizing medical marijuana, has actually taken the first steps towards making it legal. On June 1st (2011), NZ signed off on approval for clinical trials of medicinal cannabis with Auckland Greencross.
Unlike in the United States, where only the federal government can allow research on marijuana, as it is considered somehow to be a Schedule 1 drug, in NZ they allow marijuana research in order to better determine its medicinal benefits to patients.
Stephen McIntyre, the spokesman for the medical cannabis users, said in a statement to the press that, “Sixty five percent of submissions to this report – a figure consistent with online polling – favored the establishment of a scheme allowing people suffering from chronic, debilitating or terminal conditions to legally access and use herbal cannabis.”
He further added, “Most medical users of cannabis, alongside the serious condition they’re forced to cope with on a daily basis, have the added stress of finding reliable access to quality medicine from a trustworthy source, compounded by fear of being caught by the police.”
“Auckland Greencross wants to see an exemption for both arrest and prosecution given to all bona fide patients once they have been given the approval of their doctor or specialist to use cannabis therapeutically,” McIntyre said.
Once the program is in place it will be managed by Auckland Greencross, New Zealand’s equivalent to a Public Health Department. Much like in, say, Los Angeles, where a person must receive a doctor examination to get approved for California Medical Marijuana Cards, the same will be true in the future in NZ.
“A national database could be established along similar lines allowing patients to possess ID that proving that they legitimately possess cannabis for their own use and are accordingly free from criminalization,” McIntyre said.
The country anticipates positive results from the clinical trials, which will further speed along passage of laws in US states that don’t currently allow medicinal cannabis.
“We know that for our members, cannabis is the best medicine around – preferable in both efficacy and absence of unwanted side-effects to the opiates and other drugs they’re prescribed – and that many of them would be willing to participate in trials to establish that,” McIntyre said.
He concluded that, “Ultimately Auckland Greencross welcomes the day when cannabis is available on prescription in New Zealand and medical grade crops are licensed and regulated in the same way as other controlled drugs.”
I hope they do set up Med Cards in New Zealand. Marijuana really helps with my chronic pain without nasty side effects that pills seem to have. Vote yes so we can live life and function in society without the worry of doing something illegal.
ReplyDelete