Genter Julie AnneHon JULIE ANNE GENTER (Green): Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker. Tēnā koutou e Te Whare. I rise to speak on the first reading of the Misuse of Drugs (Medicinal Cannabis) Amendment Bill.This is an issue that is very close to my heart. As health spokesperson for the Green Party I spent most of 2017 campaigning to legalise the medicinal use of cannabis. As part of that campaign I met with and spoke with many many patients who are currently using cannabis for medicinal purposes who are currently forced to break the law in order to get relief that has been far greater for them than what is commonly prescribed. It has fewer side effects and it should be something that is affordable and available legal and safe.The more one looks into the issue the more it is completely unfathomable that we have for so long denied patients access to what is a low-key effective and very safe plant that can reduce serious symptoms associated with multiple sclerosis chronic pain and migraines; that can reduce nausea and stimulate appetite; that can assist with sleep—and all of that with far fewer harmful side effects than many legally available and commonly prescribed pharmaceutical drugs.Last year I met a man who has been paralysed for nearly 20 years due to a spinal cord injury and he's been bedridden most of that time. He was on a huge cocktail of expensive prescribed pharmaceutical drugs that left him in a fog and pretty much incapacitated him. Many of the drugs that he was taking led to other harmful side effects which led to a series of other complications. Now his life had been completely transformed by a group of very kind and compassionate New Zealanders who put themselves at risk to illegally supply him with medicinal cannabis products which had enabled him to stop taking as many pharmaceutical drugs and to be much more aware and engaged with his friends and family. When you see that first hand it's extremely difficult to understand why it is we continue to take a very punitive approach to this one particular plant cannabis. It doesn't make any sense.Now I want to be clear that the medicinal use of cannabis—because many people are confused about this—does not involve smoking weed and it certainly doesn't involve smoking it to get high. I met through my campaign a number of women for example—some of whom are patients themselves—who were producing a range of products at home using very precise recipes. These products included cannabidiol (CBD) oil tincture of cannabis balms which you just rub on your skin that relieve pain and a range of edible products like chocolate cookies brownies butter—usually with strains of the cannabis plant that are very high in CBD.These products are currently illegal but they have been legal in overseas jurisdictions for more than a decade and so we have plenty of evidence that they are safe and they would be even more safe if they were able to be regulated. Some may say Oh but they're home-made. The dosages of THC and CBD may vary slightly. Don't we need a pharma-grade product that we can purchase from the chemist?" Of course the actual quantities of CBD and THC could be tested well enough without it being pharma-grade but it's notable that the vast majority of jurisdictions that have legalised the medicinal use of cannabis have not relied simply upon pharmaceutical-grade products which are very expensive and still have a lot of research to be done.Canada and 29 US states have legalised the medicinal use of cannabis beginning about 20 years ago in some of them. Those laws allow for home cultivation and production and they have rules around it about the number of plants that patients are allowed to grow or who's allowed to grow them on behalf of the patients. They also have laws that have set up standards for commercial products that recognise that cannabis is a safe herbal remedy and while there will doubtless be a role for pharma-grade medicines particularly for very precise issues like treating children for seizures where you do need very specific dosages most of the medicinal use currently happening illegally in New Zealand is by adults. Many of them—in fact I think the largest share of them—are women who are between the ages of 40 and 65 and they're using it for conditions like chronic pain and pain treatment is very subjective. It's the sort of thing that people simply work out with their doctors. It's a trial and error process. The specific dosage isn't that important because there is no risk of fatal overdose and that is quite contrary to many of the alternative products that are available to them like prescription painkillers or sleeping aids.Now the good news about this bill and why the Green Party is happy to support it is that it will set up a medicinal cannabis scheme and despite what the National Party members have been saying tonight in their speeches this goes way further than anything they did in the nine years they were in Government. So finally we will be able to have domestic cultivation and production of the types of non-pharmaceutical grade medicinal cannabis products that have been available overseas for over a decade. This should make them more accessible and affordable to many patients provided they have a prescription from a registered medical practitioner. And it will of course support a new sustainable industry in New Zealand and will enable the possibility of advanced research that could lead to more pharmaceutical-grade products being available. So this is very much a step in the right direction and the Green Party will be supporting it for that reason.However as has been noted by many National Party members this bill does not go far enough to protect patients and enable choice and so I look forward to many of the members who spoke tonight on this bill voting for the Green Party's member's bill in the name of Chlöe Swarbrick tomorrow which does go that step further. Fundamentally the medicinal use of cannabis should not be a crime and what happens in this bill is there is a legal defence so if somebody is taken to court on their deathbed they'll be able to plead not guilty on the basis—or plead for a compassionate approach because they're on their deathbed.But what about that man I told you about that has been bedridden for 20 years? He wouldn't be able to plead such a defence nor would the people supplying him with products. Many many people wrote to me during the campaign last year and told me about their specific circumstances. Some of them were patients who suffered from multiple sclerosis who have been using cannabis illegally again for the last year or two who have to deal in the black market who have to rely on other people sometimes to take their own safety into their own hands and be at risk because they have to deal on the black market. So this defence—it isn't enough. That's why I would plead to all members in this House to seriously consider voting for Chlöe Swarbrick's member's bill tomorrow so that it can go to select committee and be heard.My partner's 96-year-old grandmother told us last year that she remembered going to the chemist in Milford in the 1930s to pick up her mother's prescription for cannabis and lighting it for her to inhale to alleviate her asthma. There was never good evidence to make this type of medicinal use illegal. Instead it was a moral panic in the middle of the 20th century that was led by the United States to make cannabis illegal. And that restricted the ability for nearly a century for scientists and medical professionals to properly study the potential health applications of this very useful plant. What we do know is that it is broadly safe. There's no risk of fatal overdose there's very low risk of physical dependency and it's a far better alternative for some people to what is currently available as a pharmaceutical product.I thank the Government parties for at least making progress on this issue. I hope that this House will seriously consider taking an approach that is modelled on the successful approach that has been adopted in other jurisdictions and proven to work which is simply to no longer criminalise the medicinal use of cannabis. Kia ora."