THE law which supposedly bans the production, sale and use of marijuana in Tasmania is an ass.

The police rarely if ever charge anyone for possessing or using small quantities of cannabis — certainly less than 50 grams — and will merely issue a warning. This can apply not only to first- but also second- and even third-time users.

The courts, likewise, don’t really take cannabis use or possession terribly seriously.

Possession of large quantities, even cultivated for commercial purposes, can typically attract only a fine or suspended sentence; and driving under the influence of cannabis will probably attract only a similarly minor penalty, even where it results in a crash in which someone is killed.

The Tasmanian authorities have been studiously avoiding any suggestion they might take action against those who — contrary to state laws — have been obtaining and using cannabis oil or tincture as an alternative and very effective drug to treat painful illnesses.

TASMANIAN MOTHER DEFENDS MEDICINAL CANNABIS

As long as two years ago, I imported a batch of cannabis extract — with the explicit permission of the Therapeutic Goods Administration, and the Australian Customs Service — for use as a medication to treat my symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis.

Indeed, I contributed hundreds of dollars to the federal coffers by paying import duty on the marijuana solution, even though I was technically in breach of Tasmanian law by even possessing the drug.

Because of a loophole — which means that although possession and use of cannabis in any form is a criminal offence in Tasmania and most other states — my GP was able to get permission from federal drug authorities for me to import a cannabis spray called Sativex from England, where it is supplied legally, as it is in other countries including New Zealand, Canada, France and the United States.

Sativex is sprayed under the tongue and has proved useful for many people with MS, relieving neuropathic pain and spasms.

NURSES BACK MEDICINAL CANNABIS TRIAL

It cost me about $1700 (plus a couple of hundred dollars in import duty) for about a month’s supply.

I frankly didn’t find the benefit anywhere near worth the cost or the trouble of going through the import process, although I recognise that many people do get great benefit from it.

I have also tried smoking marijuana and eating cannabis cookies. Again, the benefit to me was not worth the trouble or the cost, and I have stuck with more conventional drugs.

However, I know of other people living with MS who get enormous benefits from pot, in whatever their chosen form.

It is clearly time the law was changed to recognise the fact that marijuana is commonly used, both recreationally and as a beneficial medicine — and that the law is recognised more in the breach than in its observance.

Surveys have regularly shown that about one-third of Australians have used marijuana, with one in 10 having used it recently.

Political parties treat the issue with kid gloves.

Labor, during its 16 years in power in Tasmania, was so terrified of offending anyone that it ignored the issue, even though many Labor MPs privately supported the view that cannabis would be best decriminalised, controlled and taxed.

GROOM RULES OUT CANNABIS JOBS

The new Right-wing and timorous Liberal Government had barely been sworn in when it was assuring Tasmanians there would be no change to the status quo under Will Hodgman’s watch.

The Hodgman Government even drummed out of town a potentially valuable job-creating and tax-paying cannabinoid business that wanted to cultivate a marijuana plantation for medical cannabis.

Labor — which in power completely ignored the issue — pilloried the new Government as weak for not agreeing to at least a trial of medical cannabis.

Unexpectedly and without explanation, conservative Health Minister Michael Ferguson suddenly changed his mind and supported a trial of medical marijuana.

GREEN LIGHT FOR MEDICINAL CANNABIS TRIAL

With Prime Minister Tony Abbott announcing to the world that he supported use of cannabis for medical reasons and the Liberal governments of Victoria and New South Wales both indicating support for a change in the law, Hodgman announced he would raise the issue at the next meeting of the Council of Australian Governments.

Meanwhile, the Legislative Council — often considered a bastion of conservatism, but prompted by the highly respected progressive independent MLC Ruth Forrest — has been having a committee inquiry into allowing the use of medical marijuana.

What is clear — from evidence collected by the Forrest Committee, anecdotal evidence from a host of people around Australia who have recently been publicly testifying to how the use of medical marijuana has changed their lives for the better, and the use of cannabis medicinally in many other countries — is that we do not need a medical trial.

Even the conservative PM has acknowledged that, given the research, tests and experience of many countries, Australia does not need yet another trial.

EDITORIAL: PAIN RELIEF INTO CONTEXT

Safe and reliable jurisdictions in other countries have done that job for us, and all we need do is recognise that cannabis extracts can be taken safely and should be on the list of drugs that doctors can prescribe.

As a first step the State Government should fall in line with its federal counterpart, and remove the blanket prohibition of cannabis from the statutes, so it can be produced locally rather than imported at huge expense from the UK.

Cannabis should be recognised as a beneficial drug. It is far less harmful than the most abused recreational drug, alcohol, and in pharmaceutical use is far safer than, for instance, opioids which are grown safely under strict controls in Tasmania.

Unlike morphine and heroin, marijuana never killed anyone from an overdose.

The Government should go further and allow the recreational use of marijuana in Tasmania.

Better to license, control and tax the drug — now purchased illegally by thousands of Tasmanians who pay exorbitant prices to drug dealers, but who have no idea of the quality and potency of what they are buying.

The drug money would go to far better use if collected to benefit the State Treasury, and if grown and sold under licence, the drug’s quality and strength could be regulated.

media_camera Wayne Crawford .

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Wayne Crawford is a former Associate Editor of the Mercury and a Walkley Award-winning political journalist.