Lexi Metherell reported this story on Thursday, August 21, 2014 08:26:00

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Around the world marijuana is increasingly used to treat a range of medical conditions. Many jurisdictions have moved to legalise the drug but in Australia it remains illegal.



And now plans to grow Australia's first medical marijuana crop on Norfolk Island have been blocked by the Commonwealth after it cancelled the grower's license granted by the local administration.



Lexi Metherell reports.



LEXI METHERELL: Medicinal marijuana is legal in parts of the European Union*, including the United Kingdom, Canada, Israel and some parts of the United States.



Three federal MPs are working on a bill to legalise it in Australia. But the Federal Health Minister Peter Dutton has reservations.



PETER DUTTON: We just can't allow people for political reasons to sign up to a particular medication for argument's sake and find that there are long run health implications.



Now that may or may not be applicable to medicinal marijuana but I'm taking the advice of the chief medical officer and that's what we're working on at the moment.



LEXI METHERELL: Among the cross-party group campaigning to legalise it is the Liberal MP Sharman Stone.



SHARMAN STONE: Everyone knows somebody who has a terminal condition, it's usually cancer, who needs some additional pain relief or some pain relief because nothing is working. And it seems to me just about a no-brainer.



LEXI METHERELL: Is the case closed on the benefits of medicinal cannabis? Because the Australian Medical Association says that more clinical tests are needed to prove the drug's effectiveness.



SHARMAN STONE: Well, the AMA, like most medical professionals, always love to have their own Australian research, but internationally the jury is no longer out. This is a product which assists in some circumstances.



LEXI METHERELL: In New South Wales a Nationals MP is preparing to table a private members bill to legalise medicinal marijuana and the Premier Mike Baird has indicated he's sympathetic to the idea.



But the Australian territory most advanced on the issue is Norfolk Island. The island's Health Minister is Robin Adams.



ROBIN ADAMS: We've been the way-showers. We've had the law in place to allow the growing, the importation of cannabis, export of cannabis, planting, cultivating, tending or harvesting cannabis, selling cannabis and having cannabis in one's possession. That law's been in place on Norfolk Island since 1998.



LEXI METHERELL: Earlier this month Robin Adams granted a license to a Tasmanian company, Tasman Health Cannabinoids, or Tascann, to grow a trial crop there for export after it was rejected by the Tasmania Government.



Less than a fortnight later the Commonwealth's Norfolk Island Administrator, former Howard government minister Gary Hardgrave, had cancelled the licence. His stated concerns included that cannabis is a prohibited substance and that the crop could hinder efforts to protect the endangered green parrot.



Robin Adams is determined for the project to succeed.



ROBIN ADAMS: We see that as a great leg up in building our economy. We are open for business and investment.



LEXI METHERELL: Tascann's chairman, another former Howard government member, Mal Washer, has told AM the company will challenge the administrator's decision in the courts if the Norfolk Island community supports it.



Sharman Stone has given the project her backing.



SHARMAN STONE: And I just think that in Australia we've got to get over petty politics and some, you know, half-baked narrow minded philosophy here and look at the practicality.



MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Federal Liberal MP Sharman Stone ending Lexi Metherell's report.





*EDITOR'S NOTE (21/08/2014): Transcript has been amended to clarify medicinal marijuana is legal in parts of the European Union.