Medical cannabis amnesty not the way to go: Maguire

On Wednesday Griffith-based medical cannabis campaigner Kelly Cameron joined a chorus of voices calling for police to ignore medical cannabis users until legislation was passed, but Mr Maguire said it was important not to jump the gun on the controversial treatment.

“The NSW Government’s commitment has always been to terminally ill patients and it should be done under strict supervision,” Mr Maguire said.

“If medicines derived from medical cannabis products are prescribed by a doctor then patients get immunity from prosecution anyway.”

Under the Terminal Illness Cannabis Scheme, police are given discretion not to charge adults with terminal illnesses or their carers who use cannabis or cannabis products to alleviate symptoms, but campaigners complain the scheme doesn’t go far enough.

Wagga Local Area Command Superintendent Bob Noble said it wasn’t his place to weigh into the debate.

“We enforce the law that the legislators enact,” he said. “If the law changes around medical cannabis then so will our enforcement model.”

Griffith mayor John Dal Broi said politicians had sat on their hands for too long and medical cannabis should be grown in his area.

“I think it’s a good idea, we’ve grown it here illegally over the years so why not legally?” Councillor Dal Broi said.

“We’ve grown it, people have been jailed for growing it, we can grow the stuff and from all reports people with chronic pain get some relief.”

However Cr Dal Broi stopped short of joining in the calls for amnesty, saying he was concerned it would let “undesirables in”.

“I know it’s difficult and I feel for people who get relief from medical cannabis, I’m just a bit perplexed why it’s taken so long to legislate,” he said.

“There are already monitoring programs for growing certain crops, it’s not too difficult.”