Australia Takes Initial Steps to Legalise Medical Cannabis

Australia could legalise medical cannabis soon. The daily Sydney Morning Herald has indicated that, according to its sources, a commission made up of senators representing the Liberal-National Coalition, Labour, and independents are going to recommend that the country's legislators pass a bill to establish a bodyregulating medicinal marijuana.

The initiative was first advanced by Green Party (a group of independents) Senator Richard Di Natale, who a few months ago proposed the creation of an organisation in charge of overseeing the responsible production and distribution of cannabis.

The proposal reached Parliament last November, and in February a committee was formed in the Senate to address the issue. After public hearings throughout the country, and 200 citizen proposals, this commission will present a report on 10 August, which, according to sources, will endorse the bill.

However, the Health Department is against the new body, which it believes will create “complexity and uncertainty,” and clashes with the country’s Therapeutic Product Law. Its head, Martin Bowles, has already stated that with the bill the risk is run of creating “a legal loophole.”

Although Di Natale himself has recognised that this bill may encounter some obstacles, he has insisted that none of them will be insurmountable, and pointed out that other countries have already chosen to regulate medical cannabis.

Prime Minister Tony Abbot, meanwhile, has expressed his support for the legalisation of marijuana. “I have no problem with the medical use of cannabis, just as I have none with the medical use of opiates,” he declared a few months ago.

A recent survey by Palliative Care Australia indicated, in addition, that two thirds of Australians support the idea of legalising medicinal marijuana, with only 9% against it.