O'Connor SimonSIMON O'CONNOR (National—Tāmaki): Thank you very much. I'm pleased to take a call on this Misuse of Drugs (Medicinal Cannabis) Amendment Bill. Look it's no surprise to the House that I'm opposed to recreational use of cannabis which is why actually I support at this first reading this bill. I support this bill for a very particular reason to go to select committee in the first reading: because if it's done right the bill actually has the potential to clearly delineate between recreational effectively pot smoking—for whatever good reason or intention or otherwise—and cannabinols that are used in a proper medical fashion.The key part of the bill that the Hon Dr David Clark's put forward and why it gets my support again at this stage is it seeks to set up a proper regulated framework for using cannabinols. I'm not going to get into all the technicalities. I know a lot of people are throwing out the various acronyms and so forth. I don't think we should be bamboozled by them; in fact I encourage people to go and look at them closely—but we are talking particularly about cannabinols. So what we want here is a framework that treats this product—this plant—like any other real medicine and I want to put on the record that there is absolutely nothing exceptional about cannabis compared to any other plant that we derive pharmaceutical products from.So as I say we have a real opportunity here Minister to be able to create a proper framework because real medicine works in a scientific framework. It's a framework that's rational. It's repeatable. It's measurable. As I say it's a framework that's scientific. It's medical. It's pharmacological. It's a framework that does not and never does accept anecdotes and hearsay. It's a framework where quality and quantity are accurately known where medicine is properly dispensed and titrated. Put perhaps simply in another way putting the word medicinal" in front of something doesn't make it a medicine OK? There is a medicinal LSD push in the UK at the moment and I may have joked somewhat to Green Party members that "medical meth" is really good for depression—briefly!So if we are to develop Minister a regulated framework where cannabinols are treated like any other proper medicine in the rational reasonable scientific sense then I think we're on to a winner. I suspect the Minister knows that already as do those who have worked in the health field because we have the likes of Sativex and Tilray and they're making a real difference in really particular areas. If that's not where this bill goes—if we fall into effectively a deliberate delusion that is using the suffering of some to justify the recreational pot use of others—then we are in I would suggest a rather abusive situation. As I've said before you don't smoke medicine any more than you huff ibuprofen. So we do have an opportunity here. I commend the Minister for bringing this. There are multiple problems I would suggest with a whole lot of elements in the bill but this particular area the opportunity to create a proper medical pharmacological framework is a real opportunity for people.I suspect my final comment may be out of scope not so much of this reading but of the bill. It comes down to funding what's already out there. There are proper medical pharmacological products out there in the cannabinol space. Getting access to those through funding is probably the first pragmatic step in moving down the line of just making this particular non-exceptional plant available. Let's take what is out there already the likes of the Tilrays and the Sativexes—I'd better be clear. I don't have any particular links to those products: they're ones that are accepted at the moment. Let's find the funding for those. And I've been out in the community over the last few years when I was chair of the Health Committee. It was one of the things that was very clearly articulated: let's have the funding for it first. So on that very particular point—that we have a framework potential here to be developed—I support this bill to select committee and will follow it closely."