Tanczos Nandor: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Tanczos Nandor: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:614;Page:10576] 
4.  
NANDOR TANCZOS (Green) 
 to the  
Minister of Health 
: Does she agree that decisions about which treatment is most appropriate for particular patients are best made by their doctors in consultation with the patients themselves; if not why not? 
Hon ANNETTE KING (Minister of Health) 
: 
 Generally yes—provided the decisions made are based on best medical practice taking into account the patient’s diagnosis and the suitability of treatments available. I would also expect that any medicines that might form part of that treatment would meet current international standards in respect of quality safety and effectiveness. 
Nandor Tanczos 
: Is the Minister aware of survey results indicating that one in 10 doctors has a patient he or she believes might benefit from medicinal cannabis; and given that cannabis is the only effective relief for a number of people with conditions such as chronic pain and nausea why does she continue to deny doctors the ability to make cannabis available to their patients? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: For cannabis to be proved as a medicine it would have to have a status under the Medicines Act. It would therefore need to have a standardised dose it would need to be safe and it would need to have therapeutic efficacy. Unfortunately we do not have that as yet. However in trials in the UK a lot of work has been done on a pill that may be of use. My understanding is that the member would like people to be allowed to smoke cannabis. That certainly would not be a medicinal use of that product. 
Steve Chadwick 
: Has the Minister seen the most recent report from the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation of New Zealand and the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: Yes and I suspect that most members of this House have. From all the evidence available those organisations conclude that the risks of smoking cannabis are similar to those of smoking tobacco and they recommend that public health education should include the message that the respiratory effects of smoking cannabis are similar to those of smoking tobacco. Why would we want to inflict that on New Zealanders as a medicinal way of treating anything? 
Nandor Tanczos 
: Is the Minister aware of comments by Paul Smith professor of pharmacology at Otago University that the Government is ignoring decades of international research on the medicinal use of cannabis and that cannabis-derived drugs are already being widely used overseas; is she aware that there are many methods of administration that do not include smoking which are all equally unavailable to patients who have the support of a doctor to use cannabis; and can she confirm her answer to a written question of 2 March 2001 that she considered no studies on the effectiveness of cannabis as a medicine when deciding applications for the use of cannabis as a medicine? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: Yes that was the advice in 2001. Subsequently the United Kingdom has undertaken trials on cannabis in the particular form of a pill—not in the form of smoking or eating but in the form of a proper medicine. Those trials are due to be completed very soon and when they are the Government will certainly look at the use of such a medicine. 
Nandor Tanczos 
: Will the Minister tell the House what public health good is achieved by 14 police officers raiding the house of a man who has been a tetraplegic for 28 years in order to bust him naked in bed for using cannabis with the full knowledge of his doctor and specialist; and will she personally explain to Mr Leo Danger—sitting in his wheelchair in the public gallery today—why she continues to deny him effective pain relief? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: When there is a suitable medicinal product for that particular person then the Government will certainly consider it. But at this stage I do not consider that smoking cannabis would be good for that person’s health. I have just released the report from the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation in which the effects of cannabis are shown to be very similar to those of tobacco. In fact we have higher levels of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in New Zealand than we ever suspected. 
Sue Kedgley 
: Would the Minister rather that Mr Danger continues to take a cocktail of 20 prescribed pills every day including morphine and valium to alleviate his suffering rather than take cannabis—with for example a vaporiser—which he finds more effective with fewer side effects and takes with the full knowledge and consent of his doctor and specialist? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: What the particular person whom members are talking about does with his doctor obviously he does with his doctor. This Parliament has not approved the use of cannabis in a medicinal way. I do not believe that members would want me to approve that until we know it is a safe product to use.