Beginner activist here, but I sent this to my local LNP and Labor candidates: I am a voter in your electorate. I vote based on policy, not party. I have done a vast amount of research and believe medical cannabis should be legalised. Prior to voting, I would request that you clarify your position on this very important issue, which impacts the quality of life of many people. The LNP candidate hasnt replied, but the Labor candidate replied with this really lame cop-out: Hi Tiffany, We are awaiting the results of the NSW trial. I look forward to seeing what happens! Here is my reply. Hi Chris, Thank you for your reply. I, too, look forward to seeing what happens, although research internationally has already done much of the hard work. If 23 states and Washington DC have enacted laws to legalise medicinal cannabis in the litigation-phobic and generally uber-conservative United States, thats fairly telling, wouldnt you agree? The NSW trials will be lengthy, then analysis of the trial results is required. After that, the ridiculous amount of bureaucracy required to hand the production reins over to a well-behaved, government-approved, corporate tax paying pharmaceutical company even more so. I wont even think about production schedules right now because it depresses me. The NSW trial is too narrow; there are people with many, many other conditions who would reap demonstrable benefits from the medication (myself included). Those trials, while I hope desperately that they may be beneficial for those unfortunate people whom a) qualify and b) were randomly selected for medication, rather than placebo, do not address the needs of the great mass of others who will also benefit. Do we begin again, with additional trials to factor in those individuals needs, then repeat that whole (purely political) process to facilitate wider distribution? I have several boxes of immune suppressing chemotherapy tablets waiting for me to begin taking them. They are cytotoxic and hepatotoxic. I am, frankly, terrified of them. The very strong pain relief I take, daily, is also hepatotoxic. I have, up until relatively recently, taken large doses of cortical steroids. Those, too, have nasty side effects and co-morbidities (why, hello very high blood pressure, for which I am now also medicated). Medical cannabis is none of those things, from the multitude of peer-reviewed medical articles Ive read on the subject. Decriminalisation, to allow those who require the benefits of medical cannabis to help themselves with at least some degree of freedom, is an obvious first step. Wouldnt you agree? To be brutally honest, although I very much appreciate the time you took to reply to my question, your answer is a cop out. Your support is neither given, nor denied. Your partys line, as delivered, is not particularly informative vis a vis my vote.
Posted on: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 12:20:25 +0000
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