Codeine to Cannabis

Liberal Democrats Senator David Leyonhjelm wants the thousands of Australians suffering chronic pain to have access to medicinal cannabis, as codeine is taken off the shelves.

With codeine now requiring a doctor's script to access the drug, health experts have urged pain sufferers to seek alternate relief.

This meant a mixture of ibuprofen and paracetamol for most people, but Liberal Democrat Senator Leyonhjelm has taken the new ban as a chance to call out the Federal Government over the delay in legalising medical cannabis. 

Last week he said the Turnbull government needed to quit dithering and cut the red tape preventing thousands of Australians suffering chronic pain from accessing medicinal cannabis.

“With prescription-only rules for codeine coming into effect today, it has now become a matter of urgency that seriously ill patients obtain access to an effective and safe alternative,” Senator Leyonhjelm said.

Senator Leyonhjelm said state health bureaucrats were forcing doctors to jump through near-impossible hoops to be allowed to administer cannabis to patients.

In New South Wales GPs would need to fill out hours of paperwork per patient to start the process of cannabis medical relief.

The process isn't any easier in Western Australia, where patients and health care providers need to clear a potential prescription with a number of agencies including the Therapeutic Goods Administration and the Department of Health.

No medicinal cannabis products will be on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, patients would need to pay the full cost of a product on a private script. 

“Even for those GPs dedicated enough to spend this amount of time and energy accessing what has become a legal drug, the process is taking so long their patients are dying before they receive permission to medicate with cannabis,” he said.

“If the Federal Government cannot remove the bureaucratic barriers doctors are currently facing when trying to legally administer medicinal cannabis, the black market for products such as codeine-based pain killers will flourish.”

In the Unites States research found states where medical cannabis is readily available, prescription of addictive opioids such as codeine had dramatically declined in addition to a decline in associated deaths and overdoses.

Senator Leyonhjelm said restriction by stealth cannot go on any longer and it was getting in the way of compassion and common human decency.

“It’s time for Federal and state bureaucrats to get over their blinkered ideological opposition to medical marijuana and put the needs of chronically and terminally ill Australians first."