Clark DavidMISUSE OF DRUGS (MEDICINAL CANNABIS) AMENDMENT BILLThird ReadingHon Dr DAVID CLARK (Minister of Health): I move That the Misuse of Drugs (Medicinal Cannabis) Amendment Bill be now read a third time.This bill amends the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975. It is a bill about cultivation cannabidiol and compassion. We committed last year to improving access to medicinal cannabis as a Government and the completion of this bill's passage through the House is a key milestone in achieving our goal.From the outset I want to thank the submitters to the Health Committee who presented many good ideas sound suggestions and thoughts about how the bill should be shaped. I want to thank also the parties of the Government for the suggestions that they brought to the table many of which were in a Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) that came to the committee of the whole House and made some important changes to the bill before it completed its passage through the House.I do specifically want to put on record my thanks to New Zealand First and to Jenny Marcroft and her contribution in adding palliation to the bill. I also want to thank the Green Party who made valuable policy suggestions around the timing of the regulations to make sure that they were made a priority and completed within a year and to ensure that seeds already established in New Zealand could be added to the scheme so that they were not unnecessarily excluded.As I've said this bill is an important step in making medicinal cannabis more accessible to those New Zealanders that need it. It introduces an exception and statutory defence for people eligible to receive palliation to possess and use illicit cannabis and to possess a cannabis utensil. That is a compassionate clause that allows people to access cannabis products in the final stages of life as we move to establish a supply scheme that will make high-quality products of a specified nature more readily available and affordable for wider New Zealand. The bill itself provides a regulation-making power to enable the setting of standards that products manufactured imported or supplied under licence must meet as a part of that scheme about which I just spoke. It also deschedules cannabidiol so that it is no longer a controlled drug.I do again want to put on record my thanks to the Health Committee and to the parties who made the changes that were implemented through Supplementary Order Paper 177. A key change that I want to say a little bit more about is the expansion of the eligibility for the exception and statutory defence provisions. The SOP removed the term terminally ill with less than 12 months to live" and replaced it in the provisions with the term "palliation" which is an approach that is about alleviating pain and suffering for a person with an advanced progressive life-limiting condition who is nearing the end of life.DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! There just seems to be a lot of noise coming from this part. Can I just ask if you want to have conversations can you take them out? Sorry to interrupt.Hon Dr DAVID CLARK: We believe this is a better description of the group of patients that the compassionate provisions are intended to apply to.This change is expected to increase the number of people covered by the exception to include up to 25000 New Zealanders who may be suffering in the final stages of life. Of course it's unclear how many might choose to use illicit cannabis but it is one more arrow in the quiver as it were for addressing the issue of pain in the final stages of life.This bill means that people eligible for palliation will have an exemption in the Act to the charge of using cannabis and it means that they won't be prosecuted for using illicit cannabis. They will be able to get a doctor's certificate to certify that they're eligible for that exemption. Of course if they don't have a doctor's certificate they can get that retrospectively and if they're in a court of law use that as a defence. This is a defence that's written into the bill. It's a compassionate approach for people nearing the end of life where the usual concerns of course around product safety quality efficacy and any long-term risks really are irrelevant.The scheme itself that we're introducing with the bill is currently being established. It will be overseen by an agency and will result in New Zealanders being able to get commercially manufactured products made right here in New Zealand to a quality standard that we would expect. That is likely to mean when they're made to that standard that doctors will be more willing to prescribe them because of course what doctors do is prescribe known products—products where they know what the interaction will be with other medicines they prescribe.All stages of cultivation production and supply of medicinal cannabis will be licensed. The bill allows quality requirements to be set and regulations for products produced under this scheme and that will ensure that products meet the necessary standards we would expect.The bill also now includes a requirement that regulations be made no later than one year after this bill is passed into law. That gives a transparency around the time frame in which the provisions will be drafted for regulations and it also makes it clear that the scheme is a priority for this Government. It continues to be something that has been a priority from the start. The original bill was introduced in our 100-day plan and now will be passed into law within one year.In addition we proposed an amendment to address the use of cannabis varieties that are already established in New Zealand and we didn't see that it was appropriate to exclude those varieties that are already established in our country. I thank the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand for bringing that to the table. The scheme will require all stages of cultivation and production to be licensed. There is no obvious reason to preclude varieties of cannabis that are established.The ministry will release a paper on the scheme early next year. That will be open to public consultation. We think it's important that those who are in the industry those who are users those who are consumers of products and those with a wider interest be able to submit their views as the regulations are established so that we get the highest quality scheme. Indeed one of the criticisms we had of other proposals brought to the Parliament was that they didn't have that wider test around them. That was part of the previous debate. The misuse of drugs legislation already provides a framework for licensing the production of medicinal cannabis products. The scheme makes use of that existing framework and therefore does not add unnecessary extra compliance. We saw no need to do anything in that regard.The ministry will develop the quality standards in consultation with experts and we believe that's the right way of doing things. I will be convening a medicinal cannabis oversight panel to provide feedback and expert advice on the development of the scheme and I believe that's entirely appropriate. It shouldn't be politicians that set the terms for the scheme; it should be experts. So I'm very pleased to be convening that panel which will include experts such as medical professionals and consumer and industry representation.Today is a great day. This is the most progressive legislation that has ever been passed through this House for the supply and access to medicinal cannabis products. It's about cultivation cannabidiol and compassion. I'm very proud to commend this bill to the House."