Medicinal cannabis step closer

By RUTH BERRY and REBECCA WALSH

Parliament's health committee is expected to recommend the medicinal use of cannabis.

However, the select committee is expected to dodge the question of whether cannabis should be decriminalised but to keep the issue alive by recommending that another committee inquire into that issue.

It appears likely the health committee will note that the evidence presented to it suggests moderate use of cannabis is not particularly dangerous to people's health and to recommend medicinal use of the drug be legal, if it is prescribed.

If this is the tenor of the committee's report, it would be a significant step in the cannabis debate in New Zealand.

Canada and the Netherlands already have laws allowing the use of cannabis for medicinal purposes.

The health committee also is likely to recommend the Government look further into claims that the administration of cannabis laws discriminates against Maori.

Evidence put before the committee suggested Maori were four times more likely than other people to be apprehended for cannabis use.

Greater leniency for first-time possession-of-cannabis offenders, including increased use of diversion, is also expected.

The long-awaited final draft of the committee report is finished and is expected to be signed off next week.

After considerable deliberation, the committee is understood to be unlikely to make any recommendations for or against decriminalising cannabis.

It is set, however, to recommend that the justice and electoral committee consider the issue, probably saying its own brief had been to examine the health effects of cannabis, rather than the drug's legal status.

National's health spokeswoman, Dr Lynda Scott, said that if controlled trials found cannabis was a better medication for nausea or muscle relaxing it could be used in spray or tablet form.

But she did not support prescription of cannabis joints.

"That's just de facto decriminalisation."

In May, Australian Prime Minister John Howard backed a trial of cannabis use for pain relief for the chronically ill, provided it was dispensed by a doctor and was in spray or tablet form.

New Zealand Medical Association chairwoman Dr Tricia Briscoe said the association supported research into medicinal uses of cannabis, but smoking would not be an acceptable way of administering it.

In April, Green MP Nandor Tanczos called for the Government to fund medical trials.

United Future's confidence and supply agreement with Labour stipulates the Government should not initiate moves for the legal status of cannabis to be changed.

United Future health spokeswoman Judy Turner said her party would not support any recommendation favouring cannabis use for medical purposes. The party might have a different view if drug regulation agency Medsafe sought that use.