Pallett SarahSARAH PALLETT (Labour—Ilam): Thank you Mr Speaker. I rise to speak to the Misuse of Drugs (Medicinal Cannabis) Amendment Bill (No 2) and I'd like to begin also by acknowledging my Health Committee colleague Dr Shane Reti. Thank you for your work on this and I'm sorry but I can't support this bill. It's a really interesting one for me because this bill seeks to establish a medicinal cannabis scheme that I feel already exists but the proposed new scheme isn't a better scheme. It does appear to be a worse scheme and a backwards step. This new scheme would sadly remove the flexibility that we need to keep pace with an emerging industry the flexibility that we need to enable new businesses making medicinal cannabis to succeed. Obviously enabling new businesses to succeed especially in a new field such as this and in Aotearoa New Zealand is really important as we know.More important though in my opinion is that I feel that this bill—and I'm most concerned—would increase suffering. What we currently have in place enables people to access cannabis for pain but as has been described earlier it can be extremely hard to access. We recognise that but unfortunately what I see before me is a bill that would make it harder. Now we know that there is extremely strong evidence that medicinal cannabis provides substantial benefit to some people experiencing pain people for whom opioids like morphine and codeine just don't work—people like my late mother. My mother passed from metastatic breast cancer that had spread through her bones and she was in an enormous amount of pain for the last few years of her life but the pain that she experienced towards the very end the last few months of her life was intolerable and unrelievable. Most clinicians standing here today will be aware of quite how painful some of the conditions that your patients will experience can be and you'll also be aware that sometimes no amount of morphine or opioids can touch the sides of the pain that they're experiencing. Ironically a drug such as cannabis even though we would consider it to be lighter in its effect and certainly has fewer side effects can be much more effective.So people like my mum at the end stages of her life need access to the best most effective safest pain relief without the fear of being arrested or charged with an offence because that fear does inhibit access. I can say that with confidence because my mum while she was experiencing the pain that I can only describe as intolerable both for her and for us watching did not accept the cannabis that was offered to her unlawfully because at the time it was illegal for her to use it and she would've faced prosecution and become a criminal in her own mind and in the eyes of the law as it stood at the time.The legislation currently in place introduces a statutory defence for people eligible to receive palliation so that they can use illicit cannabis without fear of prosecution. In short the purpose of the scheme currently in place is to improve access to quality medicinal cannabis products for patients on prescription from a doctor and manufacturers and importers are required by the Medicinal Cannabis Agency to consistently meet minimum standards of quality before they can be supplied. Whilst we get our domestic manufacturers to get production of the quality and quantity we require we have people that can't wait and they won't be criminalised.Dr Reti's bill represents in my mind a backwards move in a House that I feel needs to keep moving forwards and therefore I am sorry but I can't commend this bill.