Victoria legalises medicinal marijuana by giving child epilepsy patients access in 2017

The Victorian Parliament approved on Tuesday the Access to Medicinal Cannabis Bill, making it the first Australian state to legalise medicinal marijuana. Health Minister Jill Hennessy says the first to benefit from the legislation would be children with severe epilepsy.

Medicinal cannabis would be available to young epileptics in Victoria by 2017. Studies show that lives of children with severe epilepsy improve significantly when given medicinal marijuana. Although many such patients do not reach adulthood, the state wants to improve their quality of life, says Hennessy.

The legislation removes the dilemma of parent with epileptic kids who have to buy medicinal weed illegally. “I just think that in this day and age, it’s unfair and unacceptable to ask a parent to make a decision between obeying the law and acting in the best interests of their child,” ABC quotes the minister.

Medicinal cannabis would be available in capsules, tinctures, sprays, oils and vaporisable liquids. After epileptics, it would later be gradually made available to palliative care and HIV patients. To oversee the production of medicinal marijuana and educate patients and doctors about their role and who are eligible to purchase it, an Office of Medicinal Cannabis would be set up.

Ahead of Victoria’s approval, the federal parliament approved in February the raising of weed for medical or scientific purposes, reports Sky News. Before the roll out of medicinal marijuana, Victoria would conduct a small-scale, controlled cannabis cultivation trial at a research facility in the state.

In 2015, Queensland said it would start medicinal marijuana trial to treat kids with epilepsy this 2016. Meanwhile, New South Wales would provide medicinal cannabis to 330 patients who suffer from nausea and vomiting because of chemotherapy as part of a clinical trial of a tablet made by a Canadian pharmaceutical.