The push to change the system to achieve better legal access to medicinal cannabis will be in the spotlight at the next meeting of MidNorth Coast Dying with Dignity NSW.
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United in Compassion executive director and co-founder Lucy Haslam is the guest speaker at the November 26 meeting.
Mrs Haslam witnessed the dramatic relief her son Dan gained from using medicinal cannabis during his battle with bowel cancer and Dan championed the legalisation of medicinal cannabis cause alongside his mother.
Together they started a social campaign which ultimately changed Australian laws.
Mrs Haslam said she used to feel proud of the legislative change achievement but now felt Australian legislators produced a system set up to fail patients like Dan.
On Dan's deathbed in 2015, his mother promised to make access to cannabis better for Australians.
Dan was just 25 when he died.
Mrs Haslam says she's "repulsed the legacy of her young son's death has turned more tragically sick Australians into criminals, forced to source cannabis from the black market for succour after being ostensibly stonewalled by fallacious legislation named in Dan's honour."
She says "politicking" has created "a needlessly obstructive system that has proven too hard for many patients and doctors to navigate".
"The process is too protracted, the products are shrouded in mystery, doctors can't advertise they're prepared to prescribe and patients still find it easier to go to the black market," Mrs Haslam said.
United in Compassion aims to achieve legal access of medicinal cannabis for all Australians who need it.
The term medicinal cannabis products covers a range of cannabis preparations intended for therapeutic use, including pharmaceutical cannabis preparations, such as oils, tinctures and other extracts, the Therapeutic Goods Administration website says.
Mrs Haslam will address the MidNorth Coast Dying with Dignity NSW meeting on November 26, which begins at 10am at Panthers Port Macquarie.
Everyone is welcome to attend.
The $5 entry includes morning tea and there is no need to book.
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