So, a little girl, two years old, lies in a Brisbane hospital right now, her body a battlespace in which doctors wage chemical warfare on the neuroblastoma that is trying to kill her. The chemotherapy is aggressive, the side effects harsh. There are adults cannot endure such treatment and succumb to their cancer instead. She is very sick with nausea and vomiting. Years of clinical trials and experience overseas have proven that her suffering could be greatly reduced by controlled doses of cannabis oil.

But the child will not benefit from that treatment, just as she will almost certainly see no benefit from the Premier's announcement of clinical trials for cannabis oil as a palliative for "patients suffering epilepsy, end-of-life pain and chemotherapy-related nausea". The trials will not begin for many months and as Queensland is following the lead of NSW it's possible there may be no testing program here at all. Queensland Health may simply take its data from Sydney.

Queensland is pushing ahead with cannabis oil trials. Credit:Max Mason-Hubers

This all unfolds while her father awaits prosecution on charges of "supplying dangerous drugs to a minor and possessing dangerous drugs". Cannabis oil. For his deathly ill daughter. This is a grave injustice.

The premier cited the plight of families with desperately sick children as one of the reasons for pushing ahead with the trials in Queensland, but she will not say whether the charges against this man, whom we cannot name because the law is an ass, will be dropped. Still the Premier is acting appropriately in one very particular way. A Premier cannot just reach out and flip a few switches on the justice machine, killing the charges against this little girl's father just because we might all think that would be the sensible and compassionate thing to do. If you wonder why, imagine your former Premier, Campbell Newman with the power to decide who was charged or which charges proceeded to trial. These powers are separated for a good reason.