Yesterday’s passage of a medical marijuana bill through federal parliament was a red letter day for democracy.

Two years ago, the debate, dominated by stoners and ageing hippies, had zero political traction.

One ordinary family from country NSW turned it on its head.

Tamworth’s Dan Haslam was dying of bowel cancer.

In desperation, his deeply conservative mother and ex-drug squad cop father sourced marijuana on the black market to help their son cope with the crippling pain and nausea.

His transformation was extraordinary and the Haslams became “prophets of pot”.

They hit the hustings and thrust the issue onto the national agenda.

Suddenly, medical marijuana became a cause celebre, with politicians that had previously scoffed at the prospect of legalising cannabis now supporting it with a convert’s zeal.

A trickle of stories began surfacing in the media.

Ordinary Australians whose lives were being profoundly changed by medical marijuana felt comfortable stepping out of the shadows.

The trickle became an avalanche and our decision makers had no other choice but to fall into line.

For once, the community had led the politicians, rather than the other way around.

At its heart, the debate was always about an individual’s right to choose the medicine they thought worked best for them.

Behind closed doors, hundreds of desperate parents are sourcing medical marijuana on the black market to treat their children’s intractable epilepsy.

Thousands of Australian cancer sufferers are being forced into a criminal corner because they are using marijuana to treat nausea, pain and the appetite loss associated with chemotherapy.

This nation now sits on the precipice of an historic change. But the wheels of democracy turn slowly. It could be months, or even years, until Australians are able to legally access marijuana as medicine. And the NSW government is persisting with clinical trials that merely replicate trials that have been done overseas.

The people have spoken. Let’s loosen the red tape and get on with it.