Swarbrick ChlöeCHLÖE SWARBRICK (Green): E Te Māngai tēnā koe tēnā koutou e Te Whare. It is a pleasure or may I say for the sake of my colleague Erica Stanford I am stoked to be standing in support today of the Misuse of Drugs (Medicinal Cannabis) Amendment Bill because at the end of January earlier this year when my medicinal cannabis member's bill was before this House there were a number of patients that were affected by medicinal cannabis or rather the lack of current access and affordability of it. I met with a young woman called Grace Yeats and her mother Tracy. Grace at 10 years old was diagnosed with a rare brain illness that left her unable to walk to talk to sit to eat or to speak. She was prescribed with medicinal cannabis Sativex which seemed at the very least to cure the worst of these symptoms. It is for people like Grace today and for incredibly strong advocates like Helen Kelly that I am proud that we as a House are coming together in consensus to progress this piece of legislation because indeed people have been suffering for far far too long. I want to also reach out and make the point—as was raised by the National Party the Opposition—that they're seeking to see collaboration here. I would like to note that I have met with members of the National Party as I've met with I believe all interested members in this House on this issue because I think collaboration and consensus is incredibly important not just for improving this bill but also for the signal that it sends to patients and to their whānau around the country. I also just want to point out for those who have been saying that we have to be quite careful about how we progress these regulations and that we want to ensure that we're not providing access to the wrong people that the cat is out of the bag at the moment. Unfortunately the most recent statistics that we have on consumption of cannabis in this country are from the 2012-13 Ministry of Health survey. They show that 400000 New Zealanders are using cannabis on an annual basis and 42 percent of those report using it for medicinal purposes. The best thing that we as a House can do is put some regulation around that access and ensure quality and standards around the product. When my medicinal cannabis member's bill failed I said that we had lost the battle but that we would win the war eventually and that is what it looks like today with the consensus that it appears that we have reached at the very least with the substantive content and moving towards a prescriptive medicinal cannabis scheme. On the point raised by Dr Liz Craig earlier around evidence I recognise that the evidence is still developing as is the research and this was stymied somewhat over the past 40 years as a result of the war on drugs. But there is an incredibly thorough and reputable meta-analysis from 2017 which is titled The Health Effects of Cannabis and Cannabinoids: The Current State of Evidence and Recommendations for Research—Simon O'Connor: What journal? What journal?CHLÖE SWARBRICK: —which found that there was conclusive and substantive evidence that cannabis and cannabinoids are effective for the treatment of chronic pain—for example in adults—Simeon Brown: Which journal?CHLÖE SWARBRICK: —and are effective treatment for chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting and for improving patient-reported multiple sclerosis spasticity symptoms.And I'd just note to the members of the House who appear to be heckling me that it's kind of unfortunate to be doing so in the middle of an issue that is quite important and that we're seeking to build cross-party collaboration on. I also want to speak to the distinction which I think is quite critical to make between the issue of medicinal cannabis and that of adult recreational consumption because I think somewhere along the line at the very least in public commentary the issues have become conflated. What we are dealing with here is medicinal cannabis which ultimately will end up in a scheme that is licensed and manufactured and controlled locally and prescribed in the same way that any other form of medicine would be by medical health professionals. What we are looking at on the other hand is something which is contained within the Green - Labour confidence and supply agreement negotiated to help form this Government that being the referendum on adult recreational use. That is indeed quite a separate matter so I just want to clarify that for the listeners today.I also want to speak to the improvements that have been made and signalled by the Minister Dr David Clark with regard to this piece of legislation and those which I've been very happy to work on with my Government colleagues particularly the movement away from the quite narrow definition of terminal illness for that criminal defence. Terminal illness as has been illustrated by a number of speakers before me is quite a difficult definition. It's quite a difficult thing to define. We as the Green Party had advocated for—and I'm quite happy to put this on the record—extension to medical necessity for a criminal defence. Unfortunately also as a result of definition issues that did not get across the line. It is the case that in order to bring this before the House today we did have to draw that line somewhere. So we are happy with where we've got to with the extension to those in palliative care which I'll note extends this criminal defence to a possible 25000 New Zealanders.I would also state that I absolutely agree with the points that have been made with regard to the issue of supply and how the bill is currently silent on the issue of supply around the criminal defence. That issue was canvassed thoroughly inside the select committee process and I'd state to members of the National Party who raised this issue that we had the ability to solve that with my member's bill earlier this year had both of those progressed before the Health Committee where we could indeed develop those regulations around a prescription-based model. Unfortunately that opportunity has slipped through our fingers so I continue.I also want to state that the time limit has become more constrained as a result of our advocacy and this is a really important one. It was Chris Bishop who just before I got up to speak was stating that we had no idea when these regulations are going to come into effect but as a result of the Government Supplementary Order Paper which will be tabled in the committee of the whole House stage there will be regulations by the end of next year. There will be a thorough licensing manufacturing—DEPUTY SPEAKER: But this is a second reading and we don't have that.CHLÖE SWARBRICK: Accepted Madam Deputy Speaker.DEPUTY SPEAKER: Right and we are discussing the bill in front of the House.CHLÖE SWARBRICK: Accepted Madam Deputy Speaker. I'm debating the points that have been raised thus far.So too in these discussions and as has been raised actually in the select committee process too by a number of the submitters and stakeholders mentioned by other members in this House we have kind of a perverse situation when it comes to native strains in this country and the potential for their inclusion in schemes in that basically all cannabis in this country is technically here illegally. So we have to—as was raised by Dr Shane Reti—provide a situation where there is a form of amnesty so that we can have those local strains come into a regulated legal scheme here in Aotearoa New Zealand. I would also note that that is a massive opportunity for New Zealand's producers and innovators to take part in a massive billion-dollar export market internationally that is developing and indeed actually exploding.I would also like to point just finally to what was raised around collaboration. As I've noted my understanding is that I have met with all members in this House who are deeply interested in the issue. It was only earlier this week that myself and Dr Shane Reti stood alongside Shane Le Brun from Medicinal Cannabis Awareness New Zealand and accepted a booklet of different forms of regulations that exist in different jurisdictions. What is currently proposed within these regulations is indeed still a little bit too ambiguous which is why we need to tidy it up and it's why we need to ensure that there is in particular that time limit of development so that we can provide certainty of access and affordability for patients.I also want to state that in the process of this bill and in my involvement in the issue of medicinal cannabis and in sitting in on a number of the submissions made by members of the public on the issue of medicinal cannabis I believe in my 12 months in Parliament I've kind of seen both the best and perhaps some of the most difficult sides of our parliamentary process and indeed at times I've been deeply gutted by the politics. We have now had the discussion of three medicinal cannabis bills in this House in the past 12 months and we have an opportunity now to move forward and to progress the best outcome for the people of New Zealand. The best shot and opportunity that we have at creating a regulatory scheme that works in Aotearoa New Zealand is presented in this legislation and I am very happy that members across all sides of this House will be supporting it today. Kia ora.