By Loren Paul Wiener – This Week In Weed
14 October 2016:
NEW Public Health (Medicinal Cannabis) Bill 2016 QLD Delivers as Promised in April 2016– Nothing Good
Loren w October 2016
I wrote on this in early April 2016 http://bit.ly/twiw-qld of looming problems in a new Australia Bill and now some folks are surprised, that nothing in the bill changed, and has passed unanimously in in the Australia State of Queensland (QLD).
How the Government and Controlled Media Reported The Bill –
http://bit.ly/QLD-Bill-Pass-Media1
Reported Highlights vs. Reality
- GPs can soon prescribe medical cannabis . They can but won’t too much red tape.
- Other specialists can as well – but won’t too much red tape, and very few conditions allow it. but there will be the rare ones.
- The government acknowledged the hard work by many but forgot to say, that like another Bill in Australian state of Victoria in Feb 2016, the bill addresses 1% of those needing the medicine ignoring the other 99%. Words were almost cut and pasted from the other bills passed in Victoria. Reference made to those that used real cannabis medicine, So now we are going to give you something completely different and with no THC. Where the trials show will likely not work but is at least it pharmaceutical instead.
- Word- smithing A++++ – Cameron Dick Health Minister said “Queensland is leading Australia in providing a pathway to access medicinal cannabis treatment for those who need it most, in a safe, controlled way,” but not mentioning that it is likely to be GMO, synthetics or something else other than the same quality medicine successfully used by those folks illegally that being full spectrum Cannabis that starts out with about 7-15% THC and less than 1% CBD. Trials of high CBD have globally produced high levels of SAEs (Serious side effects) and multiple deaths during trials, per one trial alone per their own website.
- The bill will be reviewed in 2 years. – translation barring legal action folks are screwed for 2 years
How is Cannabis Law Reform So Messed Up in Australia?
- In Australia the amount of self-interests around medical Cannabis has grown and is still growing. With focus on pharmaceuticals, plant extracts, and non-plant based synthetics. The media and even some so-called patient rights groups ignore the facts mostly in favor of the government’s own sound bites, that only confuses the public.
- As mentioned, in Victoria we already saw our own messed up bill in Feb 2016. It was obvious and warned that this would be duplicated state by state as the Government said it would. QLD unfortunately gets a welcome to the world of those that already saw this coming, last year and early this year.
No So Good and Missed by Most –
- For the first time in Australia and perhaps the world, “Cannabis” which for some time in Australia (since 2014) has no longer been a plant but a “suite of pharmaceutical products” now can add the word “synthetics” to the “suite of products” as in not even from a plant.
- In April 2016 I consulted then wrote about the 2 scariest parts of the bill were;
1. the Definitions – explained all but vaguely in the explanations document – (1) Clause 7(c) ensures synthetic cannabis products will be included within the meaning of cannabis product for the purposes of the Bill (2) and
2. The forfeiture aspects were also addressed in April and also went unchanged, and mostly un noticed.
3. With an 90% of the world buying OTC (over the counter) medicines being for pain, and more so for prescriptions, this mirrors the use of real Medical Cannabis in places it is legal. This is further dissected to be 66% of those doing so, due to arthritis, and growing issue with the aging, baby boomer generation.
Australia Creation and Support for The Cannabis Black Market
Similar to how the Netherlands have managed Cannabis there, Australia has created an even larger and more dangerous black market in Australia.
In the Netherlands you can buy medical or recreational Cannabis there legally from hundreds of Cannabis Coffee Shops, but it is illegal to grow for those same coffee shops and illegal to transport the same illegal material.
As soon as it gets to the coffee shop it is all legal again. If you want the preferred Australian product pharmaceuticals with no THC and 99% less medicine as a result you can buy it over the counter in many places. Like Australia, the product is not tested, and is ignored by all but the uneducated on CBD vs real Cannabis.
Same as Victoria with limiting access and red tape.
The Bill – http://www.bit.ly/QLD-Bill-Oct2016 (1)
The Explanation Notes – http://bit.ly/exp-QLD-Bill-Oct2016 (2)
What Next?
In the next few weeks over the period of time of the USA elections, there will be new Australian Federal legislature, and expected Bills in Victoria and the state of NSW for the first time.
New South Wales (NSW) – Like Victoria, and QLD, NSW will celebrate the new legalisation of medical Cannabis and as part of the Governments $60m spend Medical Cannabis it includes no Cannabis. They are even seen on video saying Cannabis is defective in Australia as it contains on average 15% THC but very little CBD, the “good part of Cannabis” per the head researcher and government consultant. All, ignored by media, government and most patient advocacy groups as the details are viewed as too complicated.
Victoria – The government has announced they will be increasing penalties further for the drug ICE again as they did in Feb 2016. – Sold and viewed by many as a good thing, the legislature is not public yet, but last time was actually not about ICE at all but introducing 7 new laws against Cannabis for medical and recreational users, patients, caregivers, and growers.
It even introduced new laws against emails, websites, books, magazines, and social medical offering 10 years’ prison for the crime, and still 8 months later never mentioned in the media, despite the live video feed and government public record in Hansards of the event.
All of this with the word “Cannabis” even being in the bill, described by MPS and Lawyer Associations as the worst legislature ever to be presented but it passed virtually undebated 33-6.
Federal Bills – In line with the last of the bills in Victoria it was said the Victoria government allowed over 400 amendments to align their bill with the new yet unseen federal bill. The Narcotic Drugs Regulation 2016, was signed off on 13 October 2016. – https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2016L01613 and is part of the framework, and a new layer to state licensing laws for hemp, and Cannabis.
Hemp Growers- To manage already legal hemp growers, the Federal Government with the states are working to re-define the definition of hemp as being less than 1% THC, but ignoring that 99% of the medicines promised and discussed so far have no THC, and some are not even from a plant but all called Medical Cannabis. The government recently said, “Do not confuse the new definitions and potency of hemp (less than 1%) with the purpose of the plant. Everything and anything can be Medical Cannabis if that is the use”
