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New Zealand: The forbidden painkiller

Kelly Andrew

Dominion Post

Saturday 17 Feb 2007

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This morning, in his Lower Hutt home, Richard will heat and inhale a few
drops of cannabis oil.

The thick smoke carries delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), an active
ingredient that helps him relax, reducing muscle tension and therefore pain.

In Levin, Billy McKee will today smoke five joints, each containing
about a gram of the dried plant. His supply at the moment is "garbage",
so he needs larger amounts than usual.

Often he will smoke only five small balls of weed each day in a pipe.
When he gets top-quality cannabis, he'll eat the "beautiful, herby"
plant fresh.

Billy, 52, and head of lobby group GreenCross, is wheelchair-bound after
a drunk-driver crashed into him 30 years ago. He has lost one leg, the
other is continually painful, he has occupational overuse syndrome in
his hands from using walking aides and now he's getting pressure sores
on his hips and bottom. Cannabis soothes his aches, enabling him to work
industriously on his various lobbying and community projects. "It just
lets your mind go somewhere else."

Richard, a former mechanic, was crushed under a car while working in his
driveway in 1991, and this week checked out of hospital after his third
operation related to the accident. He has tried to return to the
workforce repeatedly during the past 16 years, but each time his back
has forced him to retrain and try a new career. He functions better on
cannabis than any prescription painkillers with comparable pain-relief
results.

He smoked cannabis recreationally before the accident, then found
afterward that it provided relief from some of his symptoms. He is no
longer a recreational user. He smokes only within his own home, only
when he requires pain relief. He sometimes has two to three sessions a
day, each session consuming a spot of oil smaller than a pea.

Now, with three convictions for possession and three for cultivation,
he's strongly behind a Green MP's member's bill calling for cannabis to
be legalised for medicinal use. And Health Ministry papers released to
The Dominion Post under the Official Information Act show officials have
advised the health minister that there is enough evidence to support use
of cannabis on compassionate grounds.

Is it possible that Richard and Billy will one day soon be able to
legally grow cannabis and smoke cannabis in their homes without fear of
prosecution?

What is the law now? Cannabis use in New Zealand is prohibited under the
Misuse of Drugs Act 1975. Cannabis is a class C drug and cannabis
preparations are class B drugs.

However, under the Misuse of Drugs Act and the Medicines Act 1981, a
medical practitioner can - with the health minister's approval - import
and prescribe controlled drug medication, such as cannabis, for a
patient under their care.

A 2002 Health Ministry briefing paper stated that between 1994 and 2002,
12 applications were made by doctors, on behalf of seven patients, for
exemption to prescribe cannabis for medicinal use. Among these were two
applications for unnamed patients, and two patients who had more than
one doctor apply for them. None were successful.

But the Health Ministry told The Dominion Post last week that no medical
practitioners had ever applied for the exemption - only patients, who
had all been turned down.

Health Canada has approved the cannabis nasal spray Sativex for relief
of neuropathic pain in multiple sclerosis sufferers.

Spanish authorities are also believed to be approving the use of
cannabis capsules in specific cases and under medical supervision.
Sativex trials in Britain are ongoing, focused on seeing what benefit
the medicine could have beyond its most common use, for pain relief in
multiple sclerosis sufferers. Preliminary results from manufacturer GW
Pharmaceuticals in January showed what the company said were
"substantial improvements" in pain among those suffering painful
diabetic neuropathy.

Cannabis has been the subject of three previous health select committee
inquiries, in 1995, 1998 and 2003.

What does the new bill propose?Green MP Metiria Turei has lodged a
member's bill proposing an amendment to the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 to
decriminalise use of cannabis for medicinal purposes.

The bill would allow cardholders to consume, smoke and possess a certain
amount of cannabis, quantity not specified. A register of cardholders
and their designated agents would be created.

Applications for a card would require evidence that the person suffered
from a list of conditions, some of which were recognised as benefiting
from medicinal cannabis use, including Aids wasting syndrome, glaucoma
and epilepsy. The bill was awaiting information and Ms Turei said this
week that she had no undertaking from any party to back the bill. But
it's likely a 3000-signature petition could build the profile of her
cause. Norml, a group pushing for reform of cannabis laws, has handed
the petition calling for legalised medical use to Parliament.What does
the Health Ministry say about that?Health Ministry documentation
released to The Dominion Post this month under the Official Information
Act dated back toMay 2000, and included briefing papers to former health
minister Annette King and current Health Minister Pete Hodgson. The most
recent correspondence was an October 2006 briefing paper for Mr Hodgson
on the bill.

The papers show a level of support within the ministry for medicinal
cannabis use. "The scientific and clinical evidence, while not yet
overwhelming, indicates that the use of cannabis has therapeutic value
in treating serious conditions, including multiple sclerosis, HIV and
cancer-related wasting and chronic pain where other medications have
proved less effective."

The ministry listed three concerns: potential physical and mental harm
from smoking the drug, the difficulties in assuring quality and control
of the dose, and problems of legitimate supply of what is primarily an
illegal drug.

"Despite these concerns about the use of cannabis leaf as a medicine,
the ministry believes that there is now sufficient evidence of safety
and efficacy of cannabis in some medical conditions to support
consideration of compassionate use under tightly controlled circumstances."

Ms Turei says: "It is a health issue to some extent, but for patients
who are likely to die ... really the risk of smoking is completely
irrelevant."

Finally, because of the provisions in existing legislation, allowing the
health minister to approve a product as a medicine, or an individual's
request for consent to use medicinal cannabis, the ministry does not
believe the bill is necessary.What else do the

briefing papers say?On one paper, Ms King added a third handwritten
recommendation to a health report regarding approvals for the supply of
cannabis products. It read: "Please note: I have said no approvals will
be given until the results of the UK trials are known 2002-2003."

Other documentation showed that Labour MP Tim Barnett pressured his
colleagues, writing to Mr Hodgson in March 2006 to request an update on
progress setting up a system to allow access to medical cannabis-related
products.

Mr Barnett asked about the same clinical trials, and Mr Hodgson's
response made the point that, regardless of the trial outcomes, there
had not been any applications to register medicinal cannabis products in
New Zealand. Until such applications were made to Medsafe, the Health
Ministry's drug regulator, they could not be considered.

If Medsafe were convinced, it would recommend that the minister consent
to distribution in New Zealand. So, if leaf cannabis was not an
acceptable form of medicine and Ms Turei's bill failed, it would then
require a company with a relevant product to make the issue less about
the theory and more about the practicalities.

The ministry believes pharmaceutical forms of cannabis are more
appropriate as a treatment than smoking leaf cannabis.

GW Pharmaceuticals in Britain is one of the leading manufacturers and
distributors of medicinal cannabis worldwide. In 2003, it indicated it
would supply its pharmaceutical cannabis product, a nasal spray called
Sativex, for a clinical trial in New Zealand.

A briefing from October last year said: "To date, the Ministry of Health
has not received an application for approval of this or other
pharmaceutical forms of cannabis."

A GW Pharmaceuticals spokesman said he would not have time to respond to
questions from The Dominion Post this week regarding any future
approaches to supply Sativex in New Zealand.

Prime Minister Helen Clark said this week that the Health Ministry's
advice should not be read as a "major endorsement" of medicinal cannabis
use, and that no application had been made to introduce Sativex to New
Zealand.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominionpost/3964661a6482.html

 

 

 

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