OPINION: Peter Dunne's plan to 'streamline' access to medicinal cannabis is pathetic. How on earth is handing the issue over to a huge government department already drowning in bureaucracy going to help?
No, Peter. Give doctors the ability to prescribe medicinal cannabis as they see fit.
Not only are we lagging behind the rest of developed world on the issue, our politicians are out of touch with the general consensus here at home too. A recent UMR Research survey showed 76 percent of Kiwis think patients should have legal access to medicinal cannabis through a licensed doctor.
I think what's partly to blame is the misinformation jumped on by those who opposed it.
Take, for example, the way medicinal cannabis is reported on. It's not like Alex Renton was sitting around toking on joints, eating KFC and waiting for the giggles to wear off. He was using CBD, or cannabidiol hemp oil. It contains only trace amounts of the psychoactive substance THC, which means there is NO high. Hemp contains hundreds of cannabinoids, of which THC is only one.
Why then throw the baby out with the bath water, when this plant contains so many other potentially life-changing compounds?
One could argue our brains are already wired to receive this type of medicine. We have endocannibinoid receptors in our brains, which modulate things like anxiety, sleep and cognition.
Cannibinoids bind to or activate these receptors. Although CBD doesn't bind well with two of the main cannabinoid receptors, it does interact with other receptors and reportedly affects pain perception and inflammation.
It all comes down to this: CBD oil doesn't get you high. And if you're ill enough to want to try it, why should you have to go through miles of red tape to get there?
