Wagner NickyHon NICKY WAGNER (National): Thank you very much Mr Speaker. Yesterday National voted for the Government's Misuse of Drugs (Medicinal Cannabis) Amendment Bill. We voted for it because like most New Zealanders we support the use of therapeutic cannabis products for people who are terminally ill but also for people with severe and debilitating illnesses.I discussed yesterday that the bill doesn't deliver on Labour's electioneering promises to legalise medicinal cannabis because all it actually does right now is provide a statutory defence for people for the possession and the use of cannabis if they're terminally ill and only if their doctor thinks they're going to die in 12 months.The bill is flawed in other aspects too particularly because it doesn't include a wider definition of people who may like to use it in terms of those debilitating and severe illnesses. But we voted for it as a stopgap measure. We voted for it out of compassion for the terminally ill but also and very importantly because it provides a regulatory power to create a medicinal cannabis scheme. That I think is where the opportunity is that we can get something of value to the people of New Zealand where we can perhaps create the reasonable rational sensible and practical middle ground.What really New Zealand needs in terms of medicinal cannabis is an evidence-based approach. It needs to be able to provide secure access for patients. We need to be able to have ensured quality control of the product. It needs to be affordable and it needs to have a safe and clearly managed supply chain. Unfortunately the bill that we are debating tonight doesn't deliver any of these things. In fact we believe that the bill is so loose that it's almost unworkable.It's unworkable particularly around the definitions. The definitions are too broad—too broad in terms of which disorders qualify although I have to admit my colleague talks about leaving out cancer. Also too broad as to who and how the product can be supplied. Essentially if you take it at face value almost anyone can grow and process cannabis for almost anybody and we all know the risks of that.National's view is that cannabis-based products used for medicinal purposes must be treated like any other medicine and just like any other medicine they must be subjected to the same sorts of trials and testing processes. They must be able to be of maximum effectiveness and they must be safe. But there's also a significant opportunity for non-pharmaceutical grade products to be prescribed in certain conditions and this is what my colleague also has just mentioned. The key of course is how we separate and utilise the cannabinoid which has the potential for the therapeutic effects from the THC which is the psychoactive component of the plant. That needs much more research and much more work.The National Government has already delegated decision-making powers to prescribe cannabis-based products to the Ministry of Health and specialists can now prescribe unregulated products which could include pharmaceutical grade or non-pharmaceutical grade products derived from cannabis for patients as long as it's signed off by the Ministry of Health. National's advice to all people or patients who feel that they may get some benefit from cannabis-based products is to talk to their doctors in the first instance.So in summary National certainly supports the use of therapeutic cannabis-based products for their patients but we cannot support this bill. Yesterday we voted for the Government's bill as a stopgap but with the clear expectation that the Government will work efficiently well and urgently to set up the medicinal cannabis scheme as promised—a scheme that can deliver secure access for patients and that can deliver consistent and assured quality control for the product affordability and a safe well-managed supply chain. Thank you Mr Speaker.