Commission releases report into how Victorian government might legislate the legalisation of cannabis for health purposes

The Victorian Law Reform Commission has released its issues paper to help guide its recommendations for how the state government might legislate to legalise cannabis use in exceptional medical circumstances.

The government has not asked the commission to report on whether such legislation is desirable – that is a matter for the government itself to decide.

Rather, the commission has asked for public submissions to help it consider two questions central to its review: “Who should be eligible to use cannabis for medicinal purposes” and “How extensive should any Victorian medicinal cannabis scheme be?”

Prior to the state election last year, both sides of government said they would be open to looking at legislative options, following months of campaigning by Victorian families pushing for the drug to be used medically, saying it successfully treated their chronically ill children.

The issues paper, released on Friday, provides background about the benefits and risks of using cannabis for medicinal purposes, laws that might be affected by the legislation, and the experience of other countries that already allow people to use cannabis medicinally.

One such country is Canada, which established a program for medicinal access to cannabis in 2001.

Victoria is not the only state or territory considering legalising cannabis.

In January, a private members’ bill was introduced to the Senate to establish a national regulator of medicinal cannabis that would be responsible for formulating rules of its use and monitoring compliance with those rules.

This would include licensing and monitoring the production, manufacture, supply, use, experimental use and import and export of medicinal cannabis. Submissions for that bill closed last week, with the reporting date set for 21 April.



The introduction of the bill followed comments made by the prime minister, Tony Abbott, in an email he sent to radio host Alan Jones in September that “if a drug is needed for a valid medicinal purpose though and is being administered safely there should be no question of its legality, and if a drug that is proven to be safe abroad is needed here it should be available”.

And medicinal cannabis became an issue in campaigning for this month’s NSW election when the opposition leader, Luke Foley, called for a more ambitious proposal for its use than the $9m trial proposed by the state government.

The Queensland government said it would await the outcome of trials in NSW before considering its position.