A 69-year-old Mandurah man has been charged $2000 after he grew large amounts of cannabis in his backyard. He claims it was for medicinal purposes only. A Mandurah man has been fined $2000 after he grew a big quantity of cannabis in his backyard. Gary Kennedy, who suffers serious health problems, was using the illegal drug for medicinal purposes. Medicinal cannabis is a prescription-only product and the only way to get is through an authorised, specialist doctor. That’s not what Kennedy did. Instead the 69 year old grew his own. When police raided his Halls Head home on January 15, they found 250mls of illegal cannabis oil in his kitchen. Growing in the backyard of Kennedy’s Tasker Street pr

Photo: Katelyn Lambert was just 11 months old when she was diagnosed with severe, intractable epilepsy. (ABC Central Coast: Meghna Bali) It was the day Michael Lambert watched his infant daughter suffer a violent two-and-a-half-hour seizure that he says he decided breaking the law was a small price to pay for her life. Katelyn had been diagnosed with a severe form of epilepsy known as Dravet Syndrome and her family was told there was a one-in-six chance she would be dead before she turned 18. "They told me, 'Go out and have as much fun as you can with this child now, just forget she's got epilepsy, because you don't know how long you'll have with her'," Mr Lambert said. At just 11 months old

FIX IT: Lucy Haslam is appalled with Dan's Law and wants the nation to rally for easier cannabis access. Photo: Gareth Gardner 200219GGE02 In a one-on-one interview with the Leader, Lucy Haslam reveals the pain this Sunday will bring, marking four years since her son's death and why she's retracting claims of victory on medicinal cannabis. IN THE Haslam living room, something lingers. To turn your eye to another corner of the room is to find another milestone from a young man's life. Birthdays, weddings, parties and moments enshrined. This weekend marks another anniversary for the family and also a turning point. Sunday will mark four years since the death of their son and brother, who loo

Greens leader Richard Di Natale is seen at the Melbourne Free Cannabis Community 420 Rally held at Flagstaff Gardens in Melbourne on Friday, April 20, 2018. Source: AAP Image/David Crosling. The legalisation of cannabis will be front and centre of the Australian Greens’ campaign in this year’s upcoming federal election as the party urges Labor to lead the charge on pro-marijuana legislation. Speaking to SmartCompany, Greens party leader and Senator for Victoria Richard Di Natale outlined the Greens’ stance on cannabis in Australia, which the minority party unveiled as a major policy platform last year. While parties such as Victorian Labor have implemented progressive policies around medicin

Laura Bryant was full of hope when she was finally approved for access to medicinal cannabis. Cannabis oil was the only treatment that relieved her debilitating pain but for many years she was forced to buy it on the black market. Medicinal cannabis user Laura Bryant.Credit:Sitthixay Ditthavong Despite her approval, she has found it impossible to find a doctor to prescribe it to her after recently moving back to Canberra. Tight federal and local restrictions mean GPs usually cannot prescribe the drug and there are less than a handful of local specialists authorised to prescribe it. Her supply of cannabis oil she received legally while living in Sydney ran out two days ago and she is now back

The ACT's parliament is set to hold an inquiry into a proposal to legalise cannabis, leading to a blow-up between Labor and the Greens. The Greens sided with the Liberal party to refer Labor backbencher Michael Pettersson's private member's bill that would allow people to get high off their own supply to the tripartisan health committee in the Assembly on Wednesday. Chief Minister Andrew Barr and Labor backbencher Michael Pettersson. Labor says they were caught unaware by the Greens support of a Liberal motion for an inquiry into the cannabis bill, even though Shane Rattenbury told them he wanted the bill referred. Credit:Karleen Minney The move triggered an uproar from Mr Pettersson and Lab

Cannabis has been used for thousands of years. (Getty Images: Victoria Bee Photography) Thousands of Australians are now using medicinal cannabis to treat conditions like chronic pain and anorexia. Yesterday, the ABC revealed more than 3,100 medicinal cannabis scripts had been approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) since the Federal Government relaxed restrictions in March 2018. According to experts, these people were just the tip of the iceberg. It has been estimated as many as 100,000 Australians self-medicate with cannabis they've acquired illegally. Advocates of the drug say it offers a safe and effective solution to people with intractable medical conditions. But critics

Jenny Hallam. Picture: AAP Image/Brenton Edwards A South Australian medical cannabis producer who was charged with manufacturing and possessing cannabis for sale has told her loyal supporters she pleaded guilty to the charges after a marathon legal battle. Jenny Hallam was charged in April 2017 with producing a controlled drug. She vowed to fight the charges saying that she gave the cannabis oil to those who medically needed the drug for pain relief. However, the week before her trial before a jury was set to begin she announced she had changed her plea to guilty. “Today I had to change my plea and I pleaded guilty,” Ms Hallam said on a video posted to social media in early Februar

The number of special access approvals has shot up by hundreds over the past few months The TGA has released its latest data on the use of unapproved medicinal cannabis products in Australia. Such products can be accessed through the Authorised Prescriber Scheme (AP), the Special Access Scheme (SAS) and through clinical trials. When products in the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods (ARTG) are found to not be clinically suitable, the SAS provides a pathway for prescribers to access unapproved products for individual patients on a case-by-case basis, explains the TGA. Since 1992 – when the TGA received the first known unapproved medicinal cannabis SAS application – until 31 January 20

Greg Hunt speaks at the launch of the Medicinal Cannabis Industry Australia body Health Minister Greg Hunt has said that medicinal cannabis shouldn’t be seen in a “mythical, mystical” context, at the launch of a national advocacy body Mr Hunt launched the Medicinal Cannabis Industry Australia industry body, comprised of Australia’s medicinal cannabis industry licensees, last week with support from Labor and the Greens, at an event where Greens leader Richard Di Natale outlined some of the barriers to access to the medicine. The legislation allowing medicinal cannabis access was in line with the Coalition Government’s push to make medicines, devices and procedures available to patients, Mr Hu

Photo: Christian said repeated high doses of painkillers made his body feel like a "haunted house". (ABC News: Mary Lloyd) Christian Read has taken everything from period pain pills to heavy opioid-based medication to manage the severe pain he suffers from multiple sclerosis (MS). "I have actually sat there and watched as my foot completely deformed in shape," he said. Mr Read has pain "quite literally from head to toe". As well as spasms that contort different parts of his body, he experiences vision problems when his optic nerve swells, he is constantly battling exhaustion and is forced to deal with the side effects of being on the "opioid treadmill". "When you are dealing with chronic pai

A criminal case has dramatically collapsed after ACT police officers unlawfully raided a Canberra grow house. And in extraordinary allegations aired in court, police are alleged to have recruited a reluctant civilian informant into their investigation and pressured her to go into the grow house to check for plants. Police seized 119 cannabis plants from the man's home in a search later deemed unlawful.Credit:Rohan Thomson A court has heard police entered the Calwell home minutes after the informant confirmed there were still plants there, using emergency search powers since found to have been exercised unlawfully. Later, the informant's identity as the man's sister was exposed, with her name

The first time I used cannabis I was 19 years old and excited to try something new. I had one pot brownie and fell asleep in the back of a movie theatre. The only attention I drew that day was from fellow cinema patrons. My experience with cannabis did not result in the attention of law enforcement. For many, this is not the case. Canberrans still face the real prospect of a criminal conviction and jail time for their cannabis consumption. Michael Pettersson's bill would enable adults to legally possess 50g of cannabis and grow a small number of plants naturally for personal use. Credit:Max Mason-Hubers As I have seen in the stories shared with me since I first raised cannabis legalisation,

Mental Health Minister Shane Rattenbury said he wanted to remove the stigma so cannabis users could seek help.Credit:Jamila Toderas Greens minister Shane Rattenbury says government must prepare for a surge in cannabis users seeking mental health support, if the drug is legalised in the ACT. However Mr Rattenbury said the increase would stem from existing users, who were too scared to seek help for their addiction while the drug was still outlawed. The Mental Health Minister was responding to questions from Liberals Vicki Dunne and Giulia Jones, who questioned what advice the territory government has had from its various directorates about the backbench bid to legalise cannabis for pers

A bid to legalise cannabis in Canberra will be slowed by new parliamentary rules, despite support from Labor and the Greens. The Greens and the Labor executive have already flagged that they will make amendments to the private members bill from Labor backbencher Michael Pettersson when it returns to the ACT Legislative Assembly for debate next week. Michael Pettersson on the ACT Labor backbench.Credit:Karleen Minney However, the Assembly's new standing order requires all amendments to bills to go through the parliament's scrutiny committee first. Under the old rules, only government amendments had to be dissected by the committee, which gets legal advice on the changes proposed then publishe

The ACT Greens will move amendments to planned reforms to legalise cannabis possession to allow Canberrans to cultivate hydroponic cannabis in their homes, when a bill from Labor backbencher Michael Pettersson is debated this week. The cannabis bill will be one of the top hot-button issues debated when the Legislative Assembly sits from Tuesday for its first fortnight this year, along with proposed changes to tenancy laws, political donations laws and the state of the government's budget. ACT Greens minister Shane Rattenbury. Credit:Alex Ellinghuasen ACT Greens leader Shane Rattenbury said the minor party would pose several amendments to Mr Pettersson's bill including allowing the use of art

Photograther: Martin Bernetti/AFP via Getty Images A history of smoking cannabis has unexpectedly been linked to greater fertility in men. The result came as a big surprise to scientists measuring the sperm counts of more than 600 men from couples attending a fertility clinic. They expected cannabis to have a detrimental effect on sperm count and fertility. Instead, those participants who admitted ever taking the drug turned out to have higher sperm counts than non-users. The finding does not necessarily mean that smoking cannabis increases the chances of fatherhood, the study authors and other experts were quick to point out. There could be a non-causal explanation for the assoc

Researchers record sharp improvement in measures such as quality of life, ability to dress and shower independently after 6 months of cannabis oil treatment Illustrative: In this photo from April 17, 2017, various cannabis oil products are displayed in the office of Georgia State Rep. Allen Peake, in Macon, Georgia. (AP Photo/David Goldman) Medical cannabis has been found to ease the symptoms of Autism in children, with little side effects, according to an Israeli study published in Nature. The joint study conducted by Ben Gurion University and Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba showed that cannabis oil was an effective treatment for a variety of Autism-related symptoms including seizures, t

Global health experts at the United Nations are recommending that cannabis and its key components be formally rescheduled under international drug treaties. Getty Images The World Health Organization (WHO) is calling for whole-plant marijuana, as well as cannabis resin, to be removed from Schedule IV—the most restrictive category of a 1961 drug convention signed by countries from around the world. The body also wants delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and its isomers to be completely removed from a separate 1971 drug treaty and instead added to Schedule I of the 1961 convention, according to a WHO document that has not yet been formally released but was circulated by cannabis reform advo