The Cancer Council of NSW (2012) suggests that cancer patients may gain medical benefits from cannabis use if conventional medicines prove to be ineffective. Side effects such as nausea and vomiting from patients receiving chemotherapy can also be helped by cannabis. Additionally, weight loss issues can be treated by assisting in the stimulation of a patient’s appetite.

A synthetic product of cannabis known as Nabiximols, when delivered orally via spray, provides relieving qualities while excluding the psychological effects caused by THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) the active chemical found in marijuana. For this reason, it is the preferred administration method for anti-emetic therapy patients.

Two international agreements have been signed by the Australian Government in relation to marijuana use for medicinal purposes. The first being The Single Convention of Narcotic Drugs (1961) is in place to fight the abuse of illegal drugs through placing a cap on the amount legal to possess, trade and import for both medical and scientific organisations in aims to deter further illicit drug trafficking. The Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (1988) furthers the first agreement to include the banning of other behaviour and mood altering drugs such as psylocibin.

ABC News

Overview of source

Title: Medical marijuana debate: NSW rules out approving cannabis for terminally-ill patients

Author/s: Sarah Hawke

Country/state: Australia

Summary of the reading

Hawke (2013) reports that allowing aids infected patients to use a maximum 15 grams of cannabis to assist their treatment was recommended by a cross-party parliamentary committee in May 2013. Hawke continues saying the government denied the request claiming a lack of evidence that marijuana for medical treatment is efficient and further declaring it does not condone any use of unregulated cannabis products.

Greens MP John Kaye opposes the government’s decision to not support medical marijuana legalisation. Kaye has stated he is deeply disappointed with the O’Farrell Government as they have been given an opportunity to provide relief and end the suffering of terminally-ill patients.

Labor MP Paul O’Grady has been diagnosed as HIV positive as well as having undergone cancer treatment in the past suggested a trial of medical marijuana use should have been administered. "Good public policy should be based on evidence you need in my view, to have trials of these sorts of things so that you can develop the evidence,” (Hawke, 2013).

Prescription pharmaceutical cannabis products which are approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration are supported by the government. The administration has additionally suggested the government permit more patients access to approved cannabis pharmacotherapies if existing pain management methods prove to be ineffective.

Book 1

Overview of source

Title: The Everything Marijuana Book: Your complete cannabis resource

Author/s: Alicia Williamson

Country/state: USA

Summary of the reading

Williamson (2010, 22) explains that marijuana may be administered through the use of a cigarette, pipe or vaporizer. The drug can also be brewed in tea or baked in foods such as cookies or brownies. Effects begin to be felt once the THC has entered the person’s bloodstream, normally lasting between 1-3 hours.

Williamson (2010, 57) dictates that a source of antibacterial chemicals can be tapped from cannabis to fight against bacteria that prove to be multidrug resistant. The lung’s ability to deter invading pathogens is inhibited by cannabis, however cannabinoids have been found to possess antiseptic benefits. The cannabinoids THC (tetrahydracannabinol), CBD (cannabidiol) and CBG (cannabigerol) are just some that prove effective against bacteria. These cannabinoids also demonstrated success against Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA), a bacterial infection which killed over 19 000 people over 1 year in the US.

CBD and CBG are particularly effective as these cannabinoids lack the undesired psychotropic properties contained within THC. Applications of these cannabinoids can be as topical antiseptics, biodegradable antibacterial compounds and systematic antibacterial agents. Williamson continues to assert that these cannabinoids prove imperative to fighting multidrug resistant bacteria and calls for more clinical trials to demonstrate effectiveness.

Book 2

Overview of source

Title: Reefer Gladness: Stories, Essays, and Riffs on Marijuana

Author/s: Michael Konik

Country/state: USA

Summary of the reading

Konik (2010, 23) writes that cannabis has always been an old agricultural commodity grown not for food but industrial purposes due to the fibres contained within the plant’s stalks. Psychoactive properties of the herb were first documented by the Chinese emperor Shennong in 28th century BC.

In 1619,The Virginia General Assembly passed America’s first marijuana law which instructed all households to grow hemp, being it was depicted as a strategic agricultural and industrial necessity. US states such as Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia permitted the use of hemp as legal tender which as a result caused increased production by farmers.

A letter written by US president Abraham Lincoln exposed his fondness for smoking marijuana for recreational purposes, disclosing he liked sitting on his front porch smoking a pipe of hemp. The second half of the 19th century saw cannabis finally become commonly used in medicine and was sold without restriction in pharmacies to treat problems such as migraines and insomnia.

The catalyst causing unfavourable views of marijuana in the US was at the time of The Mexican Revolution, where Mexican immigrants travelled into America’s southwest. Negative marijuana propaganda became apparent when newspapers would link the drug with such subject matter as violent African Americans, prostitutes and underworld crime.

The Australian

Overview of source

Title: Marijuana laws the real crime: pot party

Author/s: Eoin Blackwell

Country/state: Australia

Summary of the reading

Blackwell (2013, p.20) writes that Help End Marijuana Prohibition (HEMP) party President Michael Balderstone encourages Australia to reform its marijuana laws, claiming it should follow the example lead by US states Colorado and Washington where cannabis has gained legal status. On January 1st 2013, selling marijuana of up to 28 grams became legal in Colorado, causing state officials to predict a revenue increase of roughly $US67 million ($AUD75.55 million) annual tax from marijuana sales.

Balderstone asserts health damage linked to cannabis use is far less on average when compared to problems linked with alcohol and tobacco consumption. He continues saying that a person intoxicated with marijuana is more prone to stay inside as opposed to leaving the house and causing alcohol fuelled violence or vandalism.

The Lancet Journal in 2012 published a study that depicted around 15% of Australians and New Zealanders aged 15-64 admitted to using cannabis at least once in 2009, higher than that compared with the US where 11% took cannabis the same year.

Australian marijuana laws vary from state to state, with most outlawing the drug as a criminal offense to possess or consume, however in states such as ACT and NT, marijuana has been decriminalised meaning a person caught may only be fined.

Sunday Herald Sun

Overview of source

Title: Desperate parents turn to medical marijuana in last-ditch effort to improve their children’s lives

Author/s: Annika Smethurst

Country/state: Australia

Summary of the reading

Smethurst (2014, p.16) reports that a liquid form of the drug was given to the daughter of Victorian mum Cheri O’Connell to treat her for epilepsy while she was diagnosed to have a few months left to live. Liquid cannabis synthesised in Nimbin, NSW was given to 8 year old Tara, who according to her mother, was suffering from 60 seizures a day. Doctors working at one of Victoria’s best hospitals back up O’Connell’s claims that the cannabis treatment Tara received proved effective after she was observed one year later after using it.

Victorian Premier Denis Napthine has become in favour of forbidding the legalisation of medical marijuana. Health Minister David Davis urges families to avoid using medical marijuana due to its present illegal status in Victoria, further asserting that the government shows no signs of making any legislation changes. An investigation conducted by the Sunday Herald Sun concluded that at least 10 children living in Victoria from as young as 3 have been reported to be taking medical marijuana daily. Some cases found that teachers would administer the drug to them.

The liquid marijuana known as THC-A, was received in the mail and is taken orally by placing drops under the patient’s tongue. THC-A contains a lower THC content than conventional marijuana.

The Australian

Overview of source

Title: Time to get real on cannabis use

Author/s:

Country/state: Australia

Summary of the reading

Medical marijuana has been approved by 18 US states as well as a further 10 close to considering it. “There is strong community support for medicinal cannabis in Australia” (The Australian, 2013, p.18), however it remains forbidden by all states and territories. To combat this, activist Tony Bowers has been working to get cannabis to people in need suffering from distressing conditions. He has since been arrested after an appearance on a current affairs TV show and is now serving 12 months in jail. Bowers has gone on record to state that prior to his arrest, he has been successful offering cannabis to people suffering from illness. He has provided cannabis aid to a 7 year old girl struggling with Dravet syndrome, a condition which causes epileptic fits she has suffered from since the age of 6.

Every year doctors, patients as well as political activists join together at Nimbin’s annual Mardigrass festival to advocate for drug law reform. Alex Wodak, a drug law reformer from NSW was quoted at a seminar comparing current medical uses of illicit drugs to that of the legal status of medical marijuana: “After all, in 2013, medicine legally uses morphine, cocaine and amphetamine, while the recreational use of these substances is strictly prohibited. We could use cannabis medically and still ban the recreational use of the drug if we wanted to” (The Australian, 2013, p.18).

The Sydney Morning Herald

Overview of source

Title: Medical marijuana a sensible step back from past paranoia

Author/s:

Country/state: New South Wales

Summary of the reading

“The 19th century saw Australia as a country with the largest consumption rate of patented medication in the world”, (The Sydney Morning Herald, 2013, p.6). Grocers and chemist were reported to have openly traded medicines comprised of substances such as alcohol, opium and later heroin. Marijuana cigarettes were additionally offered to serve as a relief for such conditions as asthma, bronchitis and hay-fever.

It was not until the 20th century when Australian attitudes to now illicit drugs changed, as The Sydney Morning Herald writes it was the result of ‘American puritanism’. Manufacturing and use became restricted to serve few medical and scientific purposes from result of The Geneva Convention in 1925. Not long later, NSW experienced the prohibition of non-medical marijuana use.

Propaganda films such as ‘Marijuana – Weed of Madness’ made in the 1930s by US authorities started to spread extremely negative representation of marijuana by associating it with crime and poor health, dismissing its medicinal benefits. From result of this, Australia felt the same hysteria over marijuana as the US and it became absorbed into culture.

The US drug propaganda strongly influenced the 1961 UN Convention to class marijuana and heroin as potentially dangerous substances and call for them to be banned under all circumstances.

Canadian Medical Association Journal

Overview of source

Title: Self-reported medical use of marijuana: a survey of the general population

Author/s: Alan C. Ogborne, Reginald G. Smart, Edward M. Adlaf

Country/state: Canada

Summary of the reading

Ogborne et al. (2000, p.1685) writes that a survey addressing the use of medical marijuana was conducted as telephone interviews in Ontario, Canada of adults 18 years and over. The total participants reached 2508 and the survey responses were weighted due to differential selection of regional stratification and household size. The weighted sample saw 49 respondents (1.9%) admitted to taking marijuana for medical benefits a year prior to the conduction of the survey. A further 173 (6.8%) said their use of marijuana was of a non-medical nature.

No marijuana use was recorded by the other 2305 participants in the weighted sample in the previous year. The most superseding reason for participant’s medicinal use was to treat pain or nausea. Ogborne et al. decree that from the data collected, findings indicated at least 2% of the Canadian population would make use of the right to use medical marijuana if made legal. These survey results may also strengthen arguments to decriminalise marijuana for personal use.

The Medical Journal of Australia

Overview of source

Title: (Re)introducing medicinal cannabis

Author/s: Laurence E Mather, Evert R Rauwendaal, Vivienne L Moxham-Hall,

Alex D Wodak

Country/state: Australia

Summary of the reading

Mather et al. (2013, p.759-761) have determined that since 50 years ago when scientific knowledge of marijuana was limited, that today it is evident marijuana has genuine medicinal utility. Mather continues by saying most of society’s attention regarding cannabis has been misdirected towards the recreational hazards associated with it as opposed to the potential medical benefits it offers. Australian researchers argue for a clear distinction to be made between marijuana for medicinal and recreational purposes.

Scientists conclude that the evidence of medical benefits of cannabis must outweigh its risks of use rather than how it supersedes legal medicines. In 2009, The American Medical Association (AMA) reviewed the evidence of the drug’s medical benefits and decided to recommend rescheduling cannabinoid-based medicines for legal prescription in the US.

Most scientific reviews advocate for marijuana use primarily for symptomatic relief purposes instead of curative treatment. A British pharmacological review gathered that a variety of pharmacological strategies can be utilised in amplifying the beneficial medical gains as well as lower the undesired effects that directly activate a person’s cannabinoid receptors in the brain.

The Monthly

Overview of source

Title: Tincture of Health

Author/s: Mandy Sayer

Country/state: Australia

Summary of the reading

Sayer (2010, p. 21-24) reports of a man named Mike who suffers from kidney disease and as a result had received 6 years of dialysis treatment. Additionally, Mike has been diagnosed with cancer and the medications prescribed to treat his conditions have been giving him unbearable side effects, contributing to further pain. He was found outside the Hemp Embassy in Nimbin, NSW asking for assistance to obtain medical marijuana.

Mike successfully obtained help from Tony Bower, a 55 year old aboriginal man working at the embassy, by providing him with 2 tinctures of marijuana. After advising Mike of the medical benefits of cannabis and the lack of any side effect he had been experiencing on his original medication (morphine), he was ecstatic and grateful to Tony.

Bower has been known to grow his own medical marijuana at his property situated in northern NSW. He provides a service to people like Mike in need of medical cannabis who are prepared to travel within a 2-day drive range to reach his home, where he offers it in the form of tincture. As he is from aboriginal heritage, Tony claims his culture forbids him from profiting off providing his cannabis, stating: “I’ve explained to the government and the cops that I am Aboriginal and it is against my culture to refuse help or comfort to someone in need” (Sayer, 2010).

Of Substance

Overview of source

Title: Medical Cannabis Lost in Politics

Author/s: Libby Topp

Country/state: Australia

Summary of the reading

Topp (2006, p. 13-15) asserts that Australian cannabis users are typically typed as young males who purchase the drug through friends, taking it for recreation on a daily or weekly basis. Topp continues saying that policy makers when looking at the typical marijuana smoking Australian, view this demographic in the same light as a 70 year old lady (Margaret) who from being denied pharmaceutical cannabis, acquired marijuana seeds and was forced to grow her own to meet medicinal needs.

Margaret was first apprehensive about the idea of using marijuana for pain relief to treat her multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis due to it being against the law to take the drug, but was aware of the potential benefits it offered after reading anecdotal accounts in magazines of other MS sufferers using cannabis for their symptoms.

After taking cannabis, Margaret was able to walk the stairs of her 2 storey home for the first time in 3 years without experiencing her usual arthritic pain. Margaret told her specialists of the success of marijuana treatment, causing them to respond positively to the idea for cannabis medicine.

Bibliography

Blackwell, E 2014, ‘Marijuana laws the real crime: pot party’, The Australian, 2 January, p. 20. Newspaper

Cancer Council New South Wales, 2012, “POSITION STATEMENT – Medical Use of Cannabis (Marijuana)” [online]. Available from: http://www.cancercouncil.com.au/1978/cc-publications/health-strategies-reports-submissions/position-statements/cancer-council-new-south-wales-medical-use-of-marijuana-fact-sheet/ [9 November 2012].

Hawke, S, 2013, “Medical marijuana debate: NSW rules out approving cannabis for terminally-ill patients” [online]. Available from: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-16/nsw-rules-out-medical-marijuana-for-terminal-patients/5096476 [16 November 2013].

Konik M, 2010, Reefer Gladness: Stories, Essays, and Riffs on Marijuana, Huntington Press Inc, USA.

Mather, L E, Rauwendaal, E R, Moxham-Hall, V L & Wodak, A D 2013, ‘(Re)introducing medicinal cannabis’, The Medical Journal of Australia, vol. 199, no.11. pp. 759-761. Website

Ogborne, A C, Smart, R G & Adlaf, E M 2000, ‘Self-reported medical use of marijuana: a survey of the general population’, Canadian Medical Association Journal, vol.162, no.12, pp. 1685-1686. Website

Sayer, M 2010, ‘Tincture of Health’, The Monthly, issue no. 56, pp. 21-24, viewed on 11 February 2014, Informit Australian Public Affairs Full Text

Smethurst, A 2014, ‘Desperate parents turn to medical marijuana in last-ditch effort to improve their children’s lives’, Sunday Herald Sun, 12 January, p. 16. Newspaper

The Australian, 2013, “Time to get real on cannabis use”, The Australian, 18 May, p.18

The Sydney Morning Herald, 2013, “Medical marijuana a sensible step back from past paranoia”, The Sydney Morning Herald, 5 February, p.6.

Topp, L 2006, ‘Medical Cannabis Lost in Politics’, Of Substance, vol.4, issue no.1, pp. 13-15, viewed on 11 February 2014, Informit Australian Public Affairs Full Text

Williamson A, 2010, The Everything Marijuana Book: Your complete cannabis resource, including history, growing instructions, and preparation, Adams Media, USA.