Posts by Russell Brown
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Anyway, a related OIA response has just popped up on FYI.
It includes the number of applications for medical cannabis received by the minister or ministry (120, with 105 granted), but that number includes Sativex.
Also: Regulation 22 (covering ministerial approval) is to be reviewed this year and regulations around approval for Sativex are being review at the moment.
-
Hard News: Helen Kelly's letter, in reply to nzlemming,
Russell, have you sent your request to the Ombudsman? I got to the point, with NZTA, of simply copying the Ombudsman on every communication, NZTA were so obstructive.
MoH have been quite nice and my request might be a bit of work, I'm not sure.
But I have politely reminded them that today is the due date :-)
-
Hard News: Helen Kelly's letter, in reply to Nick Russell,
The Minister is basically trying to create a process and precedent for prescribing and dispensing cannabis in a regulatory vacuum. He can’t change the law/regs because the Government isn’t interested, so he is working with the tools he has.
I do get that. But I think it has to be done better than it has been with the current criteria, which have been developed without consultation or transparency and are in some respects not fit for purpose.
-
Hard News: Helen Kelly's letter, in reply to Ross Bell,
An aside: wondering if anyone has noticed that Peter Dunne (minister of the Crown, associate health minister with responsibilities for drug policy and all that) has publicly backed regulated sales of cannabis?
Got a link for that, Ross? I'm well aware that Dunne isn't the rabid prohibitionist people believe him to be, but it would be handy to have that in the conversation.
-
Hard News: Helen Kelly's letter, in reply to Scott A,
I guess Curia would know…
I've said before I think this is how any campaign has to go: to make the issue a political liability for the government. If Curia says that's the case, things will change.
-
Hard News: Helen Kelly's letter, in reply to linger,
So marijuana may allow more aggressive chemo or radiation with greater chances of success; but that’s different from claiming that marijuana by itself can cure cancer.
No, it’s more than simply making other therapies more bearable. From the first link in my comment:
Senior author of the new study, Dr. Wai Liu, of the University of London, says the one-two punch of THC and CBD is really what makes cannabis yield such impressive effects.
“We think this is due to the different pathways that these cannabinoids hit,” Liu told Medical Daily in an email. “Specifically, THC works via receptors, whilst CBD may not need them; consequently, using them together results in a ‘priming’ effect in tumour cells, making them more sensitive to the ‘cell killing’ effects of irradiation.”
There are one or two other studies suggesting the same thing.
-
Hard News: Helen Kelly's letter, in reply to linger,
The University of London study – 50/50 THC/CBD in conjunction with radiotherapy for brain tumours – is quite an attention-grabber.
It’s being taken seriously in some surprising places:
Researchers have been studying the medical benefits of marijuana for years, but this month marks the first time the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), a research group funded by the US government, has acknowledged that cannabis extracts may help kill certain cancer cells and reduce the size of others.
NIDA quietly revised a page on its website titled, “DrugFacts: Is Marijuana Medicine?” this month to state that, “Evidence from one cell culture study suggests that purified extracts from whole-plant marijuana can slow the growth of cancer cells from one of the most serious types of brain tumors.”
The update acknowledges research published last November in the journal Molecular Cancer Therapies by scientists from St. George’s, University of London. The researchers found that THC, the main psychoactive ingredient in weed, and cannabidiol, an extract, caused “dramatic reductions” in the growth of glioma tumors in mice. Glioma accounts for 80 percent of malignant brain tumors in humans.
I have a friend battling glioma, so this is very relevant to my interests.
-
Hard News: Helen Kelly's letter, in reply to linger,
as a cure for cancer, no
Slightly surprising, given the trials on treating fast-growing brain tumours. It's not conclusive, but it's way better than anecdote. Stronger than the epilepsy evidence, from what I've been able to make out.
And I say that as someone who's been pretty sceptical about many medical cannabis claims.
-
Hard News: Helen Kelly's letter, in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,
Same with my Doctors application for a surgery. Sent back as insuffficient and once we pushed it straight back to them with one minor detail, my wish was granted.
I think the best thing for Helen and her doctor to do is get those assays pronto – stop being end users and call Bloom Farms directly. And then find medical ethics experts who will not only support their case but rain down judgement on the rest of the criteria.
The hospitalisation criterion needs to be simply rejected with expert backing from a palliative care specialist. It is unreasonable and should not be allowed to stand.
-
Further to the government's "we're never changing the law" branding position. From a Wellington insider:
FYI, a former staffer in Simon Power's office told me back in 2010 that when the Law Commission review into drugs came out, Eagleson called Power and said, literally, 'Don't you fucking dare.'
So this is what we're up against. And it's what makes pinning it all on Dunne such a distraction. New Zealand's drug policy has improved about as much as it can with the law-reform fatwa in place. We go into UNGASS 2016 as one of the enlightened countries. But we'll never be able to actually do what's right in our own domestic policy while the present, deeply cynical political leadership persists.
Last ←Newer Page 1 … 222 223 224 225 226 … 2279 Older→ First