{"id":66587,"date":"2015-12-08T02:25:02","date_gmt":"2015-12-08T07:25:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=66587"},"modified":"2015-12-08T02:25:02","modified_gmt":"2015-12-08T07:25:02","slug":"australian-state-to-allow-marijuana-to-be-cultivated-for-medicinal-reasons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/12\/08\/australian-state-to-allow-marijuana-to-be-cultivated-for-medicinal-reasons\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian state to allow marijuana to be cultivated for medicinal reasons"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Islam-and-marijuana-\"<\/a><\/p>\n

MELBOURNE – “Landmark” legislation which will allow marijuana to be grown for medicinal purposes will go before an Australian state’s parliament on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The state of Victoria, under its Premier Daniel Andrews, took the first step toward fulfilling a key 2014 election pledge to install a homegrown cultivation and distribution network for cannabis, paving the way for extracts of the drug to treat those with chronic-pain illnesses.<\/p>\n

Victoria’s Health Minister Jill Hennessy was thrilled to announce the plan had progressed within the walls of parliament.<\/p>\n

“I have seen first-hand how medicinal cannabis can change people’s lives — our legislation will mean families can legally access this life-saving treatment as soon as possible,” she said in a statement on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

“These laws will mean families will no longer have to choose between breaking the law and watching their children suffer.”<\/p>\n

Queensland and Victoria states have been forced to look at cultivating their own marijuana as the drug cannot be imported into Australia due to its illegal status.<\/p>\n

Epileptic children will be the first to benefit from the scheme and will be given first access to the end product at some stage in 2017, according to the government.<\/p>\n

The medicinal product supposedly lessens the frequency of epileptic fits, with a trial in the United States earlier this year showing almost a 50 percent reduction of some forms of seizures when prescribed a marijuana extract.<\/p>\n

Other conditions which cannabis has reputedly shown positive symptom-management effects for are cancer, Dravet Syndrome, HIV\/ AIDS, glaucoma, arthritis and Parkinson’s disease.<\/p>\n

After the first stage of rollout, Hennessy said sufferers of HIV and those in palliative care would be the next eligible as production slowly scaled up.<\/p>\n

“I know patients are knocking down our door asking when they’ll be able to access medicinal cannabis, we’ve got two important steps to take,” she told the Australian Broadcast Corporation.<\/p>\n

“The first is we’ve got to get a safe product produced and manufactured here in the state.<\/p>\n

“The second is we’ve got to have the right clinical oversight in terms of which patients get access and how we prescribe it.<\/p>\n

“We can only produce a product at a small scale to begin with and then scale up, that’s why we’re starting with the kids with epilepsy.”<\/p>\n

The government hopes the legislation would pass through parliament by February next year.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MELBOURNE – “Landmark” legislation which will allow marijuana to be grown for medicinal purposes will go before an Australian state’s …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":62915,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9230],"class_list":["post-66587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-uploads","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}