Coleman Jonathan: Misuse of Drugs (Medicinal Cannabis) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Coleman Jonathan: Misuse of Drugs (Medicinal Cannabis) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
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Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN (Minister of Immigration) 
: 
 Well that was a very well-thought-out contribution from the Green member Metiria Turei. I see that the Misuse of Drugs (Medicinal Cannabis) Amendment Bill has been on the Order Paper for the past 3 years. Indeed I am sure that the Green Party is very excited to hear it being debated in the House today but I wonder whether we are really having the debate that Green members want to have. I question whether their concern is really about the medicinal applications of cannabis or more about trying to bring cannabis into the mainstream as an accepted part of New Zealand society. I have to state up front that in this conscience vote I will oppose this bill for a variety of reasons. But I find it interesting that Green members want to promote this issue very specifically in this debate. 
I have the greatest sympathy for those living in chronic pain. There is no question that when we look through new schedule 4 inserted into the Act by clause 13 we see that many people with a variety of syndromes really are in need of good medical care and they demand the sort of analgesia or pain relief that will give them very real relief. But I do not believe that the correct path for those people would be to give them access to unprocessed cannabis as this bill would allow. 
It is true that when the active ingredient of cannabis THC is extracted it certainly has analgesic properties and there are various preparations of that. A drug called Sativex is available through the Ministry of Health with ministerial approval and has that pain-killing or analgesic effect. But to propose through this bill to allow people who are debilitated by pain from various syndromes to have access to unprocessed cannabis I think is quite a misguided approach to the issue. I accept that the member Ms Turei has the best of intentions but I cannot help feeling that there may be a wider underlying Green Party agenda here. 
Be that as it may it has been stated that this bill aims to amend the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 to enable cannabis to be used for medicinal purposes. The bill allows people to be registered as users of cannabis for medicinal purposes. It also allows registered users or a designated agent to cultivate and possess a small amount of cannabis for the registered user—and I will elaborate on that a little bit later. 
The range of conditions specified in the new schedule 4 is quite an impressive array. It ranges from the chronic effects of end-stage HIV infection through to migraine multiple sclerosis and nausea associated with cancer chemotherapy—all of which are very important and debilitating syndromes indeed. But we can also see some other conditions being proposed that cannabis be approved for. There is asthma; quite frankly smoking cannabis for asthma is not the right treatment. I do not know how that ever ended up in this schedule. Cannabis would be the last thing we would want an asthmatic to have access to. Depression and mental illness are also listed. The use of cannabis for the treatment of depression and mental illness as I think most health professionals would tell us is completely contraindicated. In respect of many clinical patients suffering from depression and mental illness psychiatrists and mental health nurses would be in general agreement that cannabis use makes those conditions worse. 
Metiria Turei 
: Do you disagree with the UK medicinal cannabis research foundation Mr Coleman? 
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN 
: It does make it worse. Schizophrenia is on the list. That is a psychotic illness. For people who have dealt with patients suffering from serious psychotic illness there is no question that access to cannabis is often a co-factor in the development of that illness—in the way it plays out—and is completely contraindicated for people with that sort of affliction. 
There is clearly some looseness about this bill and maybe it needs more thought as to what the possible uses of medicinal cannabis may be. 
But I think there are other issues with this bill too. I could not help but be struck by the notion that the police would be expected to distribute cannabis seeds to holders of Medicinal Cannabis Identification Cards. Really I am not trying to be flippant about this but the police have enough to do. The bill also proposes that cannabis seeds seized in drug raids—in raids on people who have been growing marijuana—are then redistributed to people who have a use for medicinal cannabis. I do not think the police will think that that is a particularly good idea and I certainly do not think the public will want to see public resources used for that purpose. 
There is also the issue of who will be the agent for or the cultivator of the cannabis. Will there be an agent who is allowed to cultivate cannabis en masse for a number of people with afflictions that need treatment? I mean it sounds to me like a pretty impractical regime. The member talked before about the problem whereby people growing cannabis at home find they are targeted by people who want to break into the house steal the cannabis and sell it or smoke it. I do not see how making cannabis use legal will deter people from being targeted by those who want to get hold of their dope. So I think there are some fundamental flaws here. 
The member said there is no problem with long-term marijuana smoking; I think that is a commonly mis-held belief in society. When we look at the research we find that marijuana smoking is 10 times worse in terms of lung cancer risk than cigarette smoking is. It is actually a factor in depressive illness. I think many members here have known of people who have used marijuana over the long term and have seen the effects on some of those individuals in terms of a lack of ability to get on with their lives. I am not saying that everyone who smokes marijuana has been afflicted like that but we cannot make out that marijuana use and smoking are good things. There is no question about that. I think we have to be quite clear that we need fewer drugs in society and by passing this bill we would be sending a signal that marijuana smoking is OK. 
Hone Harawira 
: Get rid of alcohol and cigarettes then. 
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN 
: Look alcohol is a major problem in society as well but we are talking here about cannabis; we are not talking about medicinal alcohol. This is the medicinal— 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: She said smoking for terminal illness—be fair. 
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN 
: Well if we are talking about terminal illness then I invite the member to look at the new schedule 4. We see a lot of stuff there that does not relate to terminal illness. 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: Yes I know but you’re referring to smoking; she only referred to smoking for terminal illness. 
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN 
: No this is what the bill says. This is one of the problems with this bill though: it is extremely loose. Members have to admit that. There are holes right through this bill. The member cannot bring this bill to the House and expect that it will get widespread support. I can tell members that if they took this bill outside the House they would find that it is not the sort of legislation the public want this Parliament to be focusing on. 
The member talked about the survey of 500 doctors and their attitudes to prescribing medicinal cannabis. It should be noted that 70 percent of those doctors did not want to have anything to do with it. I can see the problems doctors will be faced with. People will go to their doctor and say: “Doctor I’ve got terrible pain. There’s nothing that can be done for it. Will you please prescribe me medicinal cannabis?”. I can tell members that the demand will be overwhelming for this stuff. Every chronic patient who will claim to have tried everything will want medicinal cannabis. But it is not the way ahead; the way ahead is through reasoned research to extract the active ingredient THC and to put it in a form of medication that can be titrated against the pain level. To say that a dose of THC can be administered in a metered spray or oral form that someone’s level of pain is appropriate to justify medicinal cannabis and that we can titrate that against that pain—that is the sensible way to go. But to give someone a licence to cultivate cannabis and to have it in its unprocessed form for his or her own personal use is not appropriate for the medical conditions described in the bill and it is not the way ahead. 
Metiria Turei 
: Will you subsidise Sativex? 
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN 
: The member cited a range of research. She will note that I did not interject on her speech; I actually listened to her arguments. We happen to have a different point of view. My view is quite firmly that I will not be voting for this bill. It will be interesting to see what the final vote count is.