Woodhouse MichaelHon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE (National): Thank you Madam Chair. I'm not going to attempt to replicate what Dr Reti has just laid out—CHAIRPERSON (Poto Williams): That would be useful.Hon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE: —except to say that the clause 7 that I described in earlier calls around the famous 59 words has actually been replaced in the Government Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) and this is the area of the bill that gives us such concern. The Minister in his SOP has elaborated somewhat on what the regulation might look like and given some kind of nod to quality standards but it's what it doesn't say that gives us the greatest cause for concern.It's absolutely vital just to reiterate that the purpose of Dr Reti's SOP is not to do officials' work; it is not to write the regulation. There is still a great deal of work that's required over the next few months in order to have that regulatory framework that licensing regime established. It is by no means—comprehensive though it is and given a tremendous amount of kudos by people in the medicinal cannabis industry or those who will seek to go into it and other commentators as to the quality of the proposed member's bill that has formed the basis of SOP 178 and the new schedules—the end of the story. There's still a great deal more work to do but I do think it would be appropriate for this House to give the New Zealand public confidence that when those officials do go away and write those regulations these are more than belts and braces requirements. These are quite important things to them like will a factory producing cannabis which could end up in a medicine or could end up in a pipe be away from a school? That's a reasonable question to ask.It's entirely possible—likely in fact—that Medsafe or the ministry or some medicinal cannabis advisory group will actually have that but we have a responsibility to stand in front of the New Zealand public and say We thought about that on your behalf and we made sure it was in there."—about who actually is entitled to gain a licence. Should they by their experience in the cannabis industry be ruled in or out? And what is the nature of that experience? Will they be fit and proper people if they have had run-ins with the law for the manufacture distribution and supply of illegal substances? Well we say "No." And the Minister and the Government and their officials may also agree with us but let's have that laid out so that we can give the public confidence that we know what we're doing.Now Medsafe and Dr Stewart Jessamine and his team came into the Health Committee to talk about and to answer questions from National Party members about what this regime would look like. I have had some dealings with Dr Jessamine over a long period of time. I think he's a fine fellow and I think he's a loss to the Ministry of Health given that he's recently departed that role. But he wasn't able to say—he wasn't able to say—whether a factory would go near a school. Would a person with serious drug convictions be able to gain a licence? Should it be manufactured inside or outside? What will be the sorts of protections that the regulation regime would have? And the answer was in his very articulate and plausible way: "Trust us; we've done this before."Well actually for two very good reasons New Zealand hasn't done this before. We are indeed breaking new ground. Our drug trials and drug development regime is not as mature as other countries' around the world. We have a couple of pharmaceutical companies that manufacture generic products that may include opioids and may include the use of substances that in other forms could be considered illegal. We already have a regime around that. In fact one of the things that Dr Jessamine said was that technically—technically—this bill isn't even necessary for the development of future medicinal cannabis pharmaceutical products. But indeed we have it. So we are breaking new ground. We don't have the experience in actually developing the regimes of this nature.So I think it behoves the Government to provide some kind of assurance even in the Hansard by the Minister to say "OK. We're not going to prescribe"—there's a double entendre—"what the regulation is going to have." But at least the Minister would be able to give some kind of assurance about those sorts of things which we know are concerning some New Zealanders. And indeed there's been a wide range of views from very conservative to very liberal on the subject given not only to colleagues but by colleagues. It's a very broad range of views and it is a difficult one but I think we'd all agree that a regime should have minimum exposure of this product to children who could be confused about the legitimacy of something in one form. In fact I think naming matters. The use of the term "cannabis" should probably not be used in these products. We don't call morphine "heroin". We give codeine a fancy name but in its illicit form it's probably called something else on the street. Language matters and I think those are the sorts of examples that we should be able to give the New Zealand public a confidence and a reassurance that the regime whatever the regulation comes up with does at least have those sorts of conditions attached to it.The last one of course which isn't spoken about—in fact could be if it's introduced by way of an amendment to this bill—is advertising. It's another thing that we've had conversation about: the advertising of over-the-counter products and prescription medicines. I know the Minister is taking advice from officials about that very point. Are we going to allow these sorts of products to be advertised? You know "Ask your doctor if medicinal cannabis is right for you." I can just imagine what that's going to look like on the TV.So I think these are really important preconditions to the regulation-making framework that should be being built in. These are really sensible amendments that Dr Reti has come up with and I implore the Minister of Health to at least give some kind of confidence to the New Zealand public even if he can't support the SOP."