Medicinal cannabis research taken more seriously in USA than in Australia

Mr Lambert has donated $A4 million to the Thomas Jefferson University in Pennsylvania. AUSTRALIAN philanthropist Barry Lambert has turned his back on Australia and taken his chequebook to the US, where he believes medicinal cannabis research is being taken more seriously. The finance sector identity also blasted as “unworkable” new federal laws passed to legalise medicinal cannabis. Mr Lambert has donated $A4 million to the Thomas Jefferson University in Pennsylvania to support its Centre For Medical Cannabis Education And Research.

Barry Lambert inspects a crop of Industrial Cannabis in the Hunter Valley. It will be renamed The Lambert Centre. The 70-year-old has been at the forefront of medicinal cannabis research in Australia, with he and his wife Joy giving a record $34 million to Sydney University for research into medicinal cannabis last year. The couple’s granddaughter Katelyn has Dravet syndrome, a rare form of epilepsy that causes severe and repetitive seizures. Medical cannabis gave Katelyn substantial relief. “It is almost two years since an Australian state government announced they would be conducting medicinal cannabis trials and still we have no results and no legal supply,” Mr Lambert said. “Australia is not serious about providing low-cost medicine to our epileptic children, and medicines for a range of other illnesses.” Originally published as We’re ‘not serious’ on cannabis http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/medicinal-cannabis-research-taken-more-seriously-in-usa-than-in-australia/news-story/719f4b277e4cbe10b0b243eb8de96032