The Wire

Smoking or ingesting cannabis does not fit conventional sense drug use in medicine. But for some of the states seriously ill patients it’s the only thing that works. At the beginning of the millennium, the Carr government of NSW convened a Working Party on the Use of Cannabis for Medical Purposes to investigate the benefits for chronically ill patients. In the meantime, people suffering from cancer, HIV, and spinal chord injuries continue to use marijuana illegally to alleviate their symptoms. The Working Party in conjunction with the state government agreed to develop a compassionate scheme for the administration of marijuana as medicine. While the government announced clinical trials in 2003, they have never eventuated. The aim of the proposed scheme was to treat cannabis much like other restricted drugs in NSW such as methodone. Any legalisation of the drug would be heavily restricted to the seriously ill. However, it remains to be seen whether the newly elected premier Morris Iemma will take up the challenge laid down by Bob Carr’s administration or will it fall by the wayside. Errol Smith caught up with one of Sydney’s chronically ill patients and heard his story.