Truth Seeker
New Member
Sue Hodges hasn't tried cannabis and never wants to smoke a joint but she does want to know if the leafy green plant can ease the severe pain of her multiple sclerosis.
At her home on Sydney's north shore she leans her crutches against the wall and carefully sits at her kitchen table, saying the only time the pain leaves her body is when she sleeps.
"Which is amazing, I have the best sleeps ever. But from the second I wake in the morning it is the very, very first thing I feel."
Ms Hodges says her MS pain is relentless and exhausting, gripping her not only when she moves but when she is still.
She has tried many prescribed medications in a bid to ease her pain, but all too often suffered serious side-effects.
Now she wants the NSW government to allow MS sufferers to have legal access to medicinal cannabis, despite it being classed as an illicit drug.
On May 17 a NSW parliamentary committee inquiry is due to deliver its report into that very issue after holding public hearings in March.
Its brief is to report on the effectiveness and safety of cannabis as a medicine and the legal implications of allowing it to be supplied.
Ms Hodges wants to legally take cannabis extracts as a medicine to see if it relieves the muscle-binding pain of her MS, as is currently allowed by law in 18 US states, 14 European countries, Israel, Canada and New Zealand.
International clinical trials have shown cannabis-based medications are effective in treating MS by reducing the painful muscle stiffness that is part of the neurological condition.
To get that benefit Ms Hodges is keen to try a mouth spray produced from cannabis grown in a secret indoor garden in England and marketed under the trade name Sativex.
The product, which minimises the cannabis high, has been registered by Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) as a medicine for MS sufferers and is being trialled on cancer patients in four Australian hospitals as part of an international study.
But Sativex is not legally approved as a prescribed medicine in Australia and its listing on the National Poisons Schedule would have to change for that to happen.
Lesley Brydon suffers severe arthritic pain and as CEO of the advocacy group Pain Australia she fronted the parliamentary inquiry to urge legal access to approved therapeutic cannabis.
"People should have access to a variety of treatments of pain because pain is so idiosyncratic with people - what works for one person may not work for another.
"Cannabis is another option where other options have failed to help."
Ms Brydon says cannabis medicines like Sativex relieve MS symptoms but medicinal cannabis might also help cancer patients and those in palliative care, though more research is needed.
She says if medicinal cannabis is approved it should be in the form of a pill or spray, as people should not self-medicate by smoking cannabis because dosages cannot be controlled.
The advocacy group Cancer Voices Australia's deputy chair and cancer survivor Sally Crossing also urged the inquiry committee to recommend making medicinal cannabis legal.
She says cancer patients need drugs to ease pain and prevent vomiting but most medications have serious side-effects and are difficult to use continuously.
"We understand that medical cannabis has considerable benefits ... because not only does it address the symptoms very well but the side-effects are minimal."
Ms Crossing says if her metastatic cancer got to the stage where cannabis might help she would not want to grow a plant in her back garden but would rather use an approved therapeutic product with clear dosages.
"There's enough evidence, there's enough experience in other countries to say that if we do this in a sensible way, with appropriate safeguards, we can help a lot of people who are suffering, not only at the ends of their lives," she says.
But NSW Police cautioned at the inquiry there was a danger of leakage into the community and a rise in cannabis use.
Drug Squad Commander Nicholas Bingham said studies in the US had shown that cannabis use had gone up in states that allowed medicinal cannabis.
If medicinal cannabis is legalised, NSW Police want it to be a therapeutic product such as a pill or spray, different and readily identifiable from illicit forms of the drug, including tinctures made from illegal crops and supplied as medicines outside the formal health system.
"If you possess any of those products, apart from Sativex where you would have a prescription, then you are possessing cannabis and you are committing a crime," Superintendent Bingham said.
Australian Medical Association NSW Vice President Saxon Smith told the inquiry that the association did not condone the use of cannabis for non-medical purposes as it was a drug that caused a range of health and social harms.
The results of long term medical use were not currently understood and taking the drug could lead to psychosis and depression, he said.
But Dr Smith said cannabis could be of medical benefit for multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, wasting associated with HIV and cancer and for nausea and vomiting in people undergoing chemotherapy who did not respond to conventional therapies.
"At this point in time the AMA NSW believes further research should be carried out, given the recognised harmful effects of cannabis, to validate these medical benefits."
Sue Hodges meanwhile gets through each day on prescribed pain medication but hopes lawmakers will soon approve medicinal cannabis for MS sufferers and others suffering ongoing pain.
"All those other countries do it. I can't believe Australia is behind," she says.
News Hawk- Truth Seeker 420 MAGAZINE ®
Source: news.ninemsn.com.au
Author: ninemsn.com.au
Contact: Contact Us
Website: Medicinal cannabis considered in NSW
At her home on Sydney's north shore she leans her crutches against the wall and carefully sits at her kitchen table, saying the only time the pain leaves her body is when she sleeps.
"Which is amazing, I have the best sleeps ever. But from the second I wake in the morning it is the very, very first thing I feel."
Ms Hodges says her MS pain is relentless and exhausting, gripping her not only when she moves but when she is still.
She has tried many prescribed medications in a bid to ease her pain, but all too often suffered serious side-effects.
Now she wants the NSW government to allow MS sufferers to have legal access to medicinal cannabis, despite it being classed as an illicit drug.
On May 17 a NSW parliamentary committee inquiry is due to deliver its report into that very issue after holding public hearings in March.
Its brief is to report on the effectiveness and safety of cannabis as a medicine and the legal implications of allowing it to be supplied.
Ms Hodges wants to legally take cannabis extracts as a medicine to see if it relieves the muscle-binding pain of her MS, as is currently allowed by law in 18 US states, 14 European countries, Israel, Canada and New Zealand.
International clinical trials have shown cannabis-based medications are effective in treating MS by reducing the painful muscle stiffness that is part of the neurological condition.
To get that benefit Ms Hodges is keen to try a mouth spray produced from cannabis grown in a secret indoor garden in England and marketed under the trade name Sativex.
The product, which minimises the cannabis high, has been registered by Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) as a medicine for MS sufferers and is being trialled on cancer patients in four Australian hospitals as part of an international study.
But Sativex is not legally approved as a prescribed medicine in Australia and its listing on the National Poisons Schedule would have to change for that to happen.
Lesley Brydon suffers severe arthritic pain and as CEO of the advocacy group Pain Australia she fronted the parliamentary inquiry to urge legal access to approved therapeutic cannabis.
"People should have access to a variety of treatments of pain because pain is so idiosyncratic with people - what works for one person may not work for another.
"Cannabis is another option where other options have failed to help."
Ms Brydon says cannabis medicines like Sativex relieve MS symptoms but medicinal cannabis might also help cancer patients and those in palliative care, though more research is needed.
She says if medicinal cannabis is approved it should be in the form of a pill or spray, as people should not self-medicate by smoking cannabis because dosages cannot be controlled.
The advocacy group Cancer Voices Australia's deputy chair and cancer survivor Sally Crossing also urged the inquiry committee to recommend making medicinal cannabis legal.
She says cancer patients need drugs to ease pain and prevent vomiting but most medications have serious side-effects and are difficult to use continuously.
"We understand that medical cannabis has considerable benefits ... because not only does it address the symptoms very well but the side-effects are minimal."
Ms Crossing says if her metastatic cancer got to the stage where cannabis might help she would not want to grow a plant in her back garden but would rather use an approved therapeutic product with clear dosages.
"There's enough evidence, there's enough experience in other countries to say that if we do this in a sensible way, with appropriate safeguards, we can help a lot of people who are suffering, not only at the ends of their lives," she says.
But NSW Police cautioned at the inquiry there was a danger of leakage into the community and a rise in cannabis use.
Drug Squad Commander Nicholas Bingham said studies in the US had shown that cannabis use had gone up in states that allowed medicinal cannabis.
If medicinal cannabis is legalised, NSW Police want it to be a therapeutic product such as a pill or spray, different and readily identifiable from illicit forms of the drug, including tinctures made from illegal crops and supplied as medicines outside the formal health system.
"If you possess any of those products, apart from Sativex where you would have a prescription, then you are possessing cannabis and you are committing a crime," Superintendent Bingham said.
Australian Medical Association NSW Vice President Saxon Smith told the inquiry that the association did not condone the use of cannabis for non-medical purposes as it was a drug that caused a range of health and social harms.
The results of long term medical use were not currently understood and taking the drug could lead to psychosis and depression, he said.
But Dr Smith said cannabis could be of medical benefit for multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, wasting associated with HIV and cancer and for nausea and vomiting in people undergoing chemotherapy who did not respond to conventional therapies.
"At this point in time the AMA NSW believes further research should be carried out, given the recognised harmful effects of cannabis, to validate these medical benefits."
Sue Hodges meanwhile gets through each day on prescribed pain medication but hopes lawmakers will soon approve medicinal cannabis for MS sufferers and others suffering ongoing pain.
"All those other countries do it. I can't believe Australia is behind," she says.
News Hawk- Truth Seeker 420 MAGAZINE ®
Source: news.ninemsn.com.au
Author: ninemsn.com.au
Contact: Contact Us
Website: Medicinal cannabis considered in NSW
