BackFriday, 3 March 2017
First South Australian patient given approval for medical cannabis
The State Government says the first South Australian patient has been given approval for medical marijuana prescription. Crossbench and Liberal MPs held a forum this afternoon to hear from consumers, doctors and those in the medicinal cannabis industry amid concerns legal access was still a problem. They claim SA still had no authorised prescriber of medicinal marijuana. The Greens have described medical marijuana access in South Australia as a farce and are calling for a patient access scheme similar to other states.
Minister for Manufacturing and Innovation, Kyam Maher, says there’s no need for that because State laws are already flexible enough:
(ABC RADIO ADELAIDE 4pm & ABC NORTH & WEST 4pm) “There is a patient in South Australia, a cancer sufferer, who has already been approved by the Federal TGA for medical cannabis to be prescribed for that patient.”
Dignity Party MLC Kelly Vincent says it’s important doctors have their voices heard:
(5AA 4pm) “Even though it has been a year since the Federal Government made medical cannabis prescribable and three months since the State Government committed to doing so there has still been no doctor or other medical practitioner actually been made an official prescriber. The State Government still hasn’t provided the framework.”
Greens MP Tammy Franks hosted a forum on the issue at Parliament House today and says the Government needs to move faster.
(ABC RADIO ADELAIDE 5pm & ABC NORTH & WEST 5pm) “The big picture story that this is fixed – well it’s not. There’s still barriers put every step of the way for somebody who wants to access medical cannabis.”
Meantime Aussie kids may be given medicinal cannabis to help them with anxiety and mental health issues. From June we’ll see the roll-out of medicinal marijuana trials for mentally ill young people aged 12-25. Former Australian of the Year Professor Patrick McGorry responding to people who say 12 is too young.
(HIT 6pm) “You wouldn’t say that if you were talking about asthma, you wouldn’t say we shouldn’t be starting treatments for young children with asthma. The thing is that anxiety begins in late childhood and generally takes off in adolescence.”