#FixDansLaw: Help make medicinal cannabis accessible and affordable for Australians

Recent signers:

The issue

Seven years ago, hundreds of thousands of compassionate Australians helped legalise medicinal cannabis to relieve the suffering of patients like my son, Dan, but despite this win, politicians failed us. On his deathbed, Dan asked me to keep fighting until all patients that needed access could achieve it, so here I am in 2023, coming up to Dan’s 8th death anniversary, still trying to fulfill that promise.

The previous Coalition government regulated medicinal cannabis via the Special Access Scheme which meant that it was tightly controlled, access was restricted and full costs were to be borne by the patient.

I’m calling on the new Labor government to help us #FixDansLaw by launching a three-year pilot program of the Compassionate Access Scheme, Compass, for patients unable to afford medicinal cannabis for serious conditions.

All those years ago when we campaigned for change along with the support of 400,000 Austrlaians, it led to a positive cross-party bill that recognised that cannabis was worthy of a special set of regulatory controls. But the Coalition government threw out that bill and chose to amend the Narcotic Drugs Act 1967, putting it in the approved-yet-unapproved pigeonhole.

The legislation that was passed seven years ago does not equate to access for many thousands of Australian patients. Right now, medicinal cannabis is a medicine for the wealthy. This new program will help address what the Coalition government failed to address: cost and affordability of medicinal cannabis.

There are many other dilemmas that have plagued patients from the outset. They do require a renewal of commitment from the Labor Party and a willingness to engage with the community to create meaningful change for genuine patients.

When I first began lobbying politicians to legalise medicinal cannabis back in 2014, it was because I had witnessed first-hand just how much cannabis was relieving the suffering of my 24-year-old son who was dying from stage-four bowel cancer. My own perceptions of the harms and value of cannabis were conflicted as a nurse and mother, yet seeing Dan gain some long-lost quality of life has inspired me to continue this advocacy.

We have had to battle every step of the way to remove red tape, educate and advocate for patients. To help spread awareness, we are launching the Medicinal Cannabis Awareness Week on February 20 - 7 years since legalisation and 8 years since Dan’s death. Please sign and share this petition to join the movement.

----

The 24th February 2019 marked the fourth anniversary of the death from bowel cancer of my beautiful 25-year-old son Dan Haslam - and is the third anniversary of the legislative changes we believed would make medicinal cannabis available to all sick Australians who needed it.

When it was passed, they called it 'Dan's Law'. After years of campaigning, backed by this Change.org petition which at the time was signed by over 250,000 people, I was so proud. Dan wasn't beside me, but he was with me. But now I'm angry and bitterly disappointed.

Why? Because the medicinal cannabis system kickstarted by Dan's Law is a mess. Rather than making things easier, the legislative changes of 2016 which were supposed to make cannabis and cannabis products available to sick Australians have barely improved matters at all. Only around 2000 people have been able to legally access medicinal cannabis. Patients still struggle to obtain such medicines legally while a huge black market has developed servicing hundreds of thousands of people.

The products supplied by this illicit market are of course of unknown quality and safety, completely illegal and are being used without medical supervision, placing thousands of sick people in harm’s way.

But it gets even worse. A knock-on of the 2016 Dan's Law legislation has been that medicinal cannabis and other cannabis products fall into a state of permanent ‘regulatory limbo’. They are – quite literally ‘approved unapproved medicines’. And the TGA, which approves new medicines in Australia, is simply ill-prepared to assess medicinal cannabis.

Dan’s Law was put in place to legalise the cultivation of medicinal cannabis in Australia. But was it all for nothing? That's why I'm therefore re-starting this petition and asking for your help to fix the medicinal cannabis mess.

Please, sign and share this petition and help me honour my son's life and hard work. What we have now is an insult to his memory, and leaves hundreds of thousands of chronically and terminally ill Australians in unnecessary pain.

#FixDansLaw

Lucy HaslamPetition starterAs an ex-nurse and mother of three sons, my life changed when my youngest son, Dan, was diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer in 2010. By 2014, cannabis was the only relief for his chemotherapy-induced nausea, despite its illegality at the time.

Media enquiries

439,372

Recent signers:

The issue

----

#FixDansLaw

Media enquiries

Support now

439,372

The Decision Makers

Senator Richard Di Natale,

Leader of the Australian Greens

Responded

“Thank you for signing the change.org petition to ‘Fix Dan’s Law’ and boost access to medicinal cannabis for patients around Australia. The Greens have lead political action on medicinal cannabis for many years. We have introduced numerous bills in state and federal parliaments, while the major parties remained silent. We will continue to fight alongside patients and advocates to get action on this until all Australians are able to access medicinal cannabis through pathways that are equitable, accessible and free. I first proposed a bill into the Senate in 2014 to establish an independent regulator of medicinal cannabis and secured support from across the political spectrum and from the sector and patient advocates. Unfortunately, at the eleventh hour the government decided to adopt a different approach, using the TGA to regulate medicinal cannabis. We have had concerns about the TGA pathway from the outset, and these concerns have been borne out in the huge barriers that patients face to accessing medicinal cannabis. I have used Senate Estimates to pursue the government about the lack of prescribers, and the low number prescriptions being dispensed - I don’t need to tell you how slowly these numbers are going up. The Government’s true intentions were revealed in 2017 when they introduced regulations which would have restricted patients from importing medicinal cannabis. We disallowed this regulation, with the support of the senate. Only three days later, the government ignored the ruling of the Senate and wrote to importers telling them that they would still be blocked from importing medicinal cannabis. In response, I introduced and successfully passed the Securing Patient Access bill through the Senate in September 2017 to allow Australians the dignity and access that patients in other parts of the world have. Shamefully, the Liberals did not support this change in the lower house. The TGA has never been the right model for medicinal cannabis. The purpose of the TGA is to approve pharmaceutical products, not a complex plant like medicinal cannabis. Cannabis is a unique plant that contains multiple chemical compounds and therapeutic effects that simply can never fit into the TGA’s model of regulation. There will continue to be barriers to access as long as the TGA is the pathway used by the government. The ALP’s announcement that they will continue to use the TGA, shows that they don’t understand medicinal cannabis and the problems with the TGA. The TGA process has been given the opportunity to work, and it has failed. Where medicinal cannabis is used successfully overseas, independent agencies are used that are separate from other pharmaceutical approval processes. In Israel, the national medicinal cannabis agency operates as a wholesaler and distributor of medicinal cannabis. Product is distributed to approved pharmacies, and patients are able to trial different strains to establish which gives them the best effect. Action needs to be taken on this urgently. I will be reintroducing my bill to establish an independent regulator when the Senate next sits, and I again invite the ALP to get on board. The independent body will be responsible for licensing the production, manufacture, supply, use, research and import and export of medicinal cannabis. It’s a model that would faster, easier access for people who need it while still ensuring that the system is safe and medical practitioners are involved. The current approach isn’t working and it’s time to change it. Yours sincerely, Dr Richard di Natale Leader of the Australian Greens and Senator for Victoria”

Senator Richard Di Natale

Leader of the Australian Greens

Responded