Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: A dramatic and unremarkable decision, in reply to Kay,
I hope that helps with your question.
Thanks for that, Kay.
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Hard News: Laughing from diversity, and…, in reply to Kumara Republic,
It sometimes pays to give the subject enough rope to strangle himself. Paul Bushnell’s Artsweek interview with Richard Prebble on RNZ years ago comes to mind:
Oh man, that was a legendary piece of radio.
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Hard News: A dramatic and unremarkable decision, in reply to Ross Bell,
Dunne Speaks
I think it would been more helpful if he hadn't, tbh.
He actually didn't need to go charging around with a firehose.
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Hard News: A dramatic and unremarkable decision, in reply to ,
Like when I buy alcohol free beer at the supermarket. I need the be eighteen to get past the wall of ignorance about not only what part of the product is dangerous, but also the part that’s illegal to sell.
Really? They have it set up at the Grey Lynn Countdown so that alcohol-free beer doesn't trigger the needs-approval flag.
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Some useful comment from Chris Fowlie (aka the marijuana activist who doesn’t make things worse):
CBD is already listed in the Medicines Act and so you’d think it would be easy to prescribe. Non-medical use of CBD is not illegal, so anyone can order it online and import it without any issues. But if you want to use CBD medically, it comes under the Medicines Act and must be prescribed. However the only approved medicine here that contains CBD is Sativex, which also contains THC, the main psychoactive ingredient in cannabis. The Hospital were not willing to turn a blind eye to ‘non medical’ use nor were they keen to give Alex THC, apparently fearing that if Alex came out of the coma he might be distressed or disorientated from being ‘high’. But if it saved his life, would he really mind a rather pleasant, short lasting, side effect?
Regardless, there is no medicine approved here containing CBD that the hospital could use, so they needed to apply for special permission to import an experimental CBD medication called Elixinol from the US. This required import permits, storage facilities, and wading through more red tape.
Then the Hospital bureaucrats and P.R. guardians came into the picture. The Ethics committee wanted a say. Things slowed down. The family got frustrated. They dared to talk to the media and started a Change.org petition that quickly got over twenty thousand supporters. In what seemed like a childish hissy fit, the Hospital pulled the plug on applying to use CBD. Another week went by. The family did not give up, they talked to more media, and organised protests outside Wellington Hospital and in Nelson.
Finally, the bureaucrats at Capital and Coast District Health Board remembered they are there to help not hinder. Last Friday they agreed to fill out the forms and lodge the application, which they eventually did on Monday afternoon.
To his credit, Dunne acted quickly and granted permission on Tuesday morning. And to their credit, at least Wellington Hospital have at last done the right thing. The problem lies not with them but an outdated law that locks up access to medicinal cannabis tighter than hard core pharmaceuticals that have truly dangerous side effects and risks (Vioxx, anyone?).
What is really exciting is this is the first time permission has been granted to use a medical cannabis product that does not have the usual pharmaceutical-level testing and clinical trials. It took the cannabis extract Sativex many years to achieve this, which explains why it is so expensive compared to illicitly obtained or home grown medical cannabis. Legal access is treated like an application to use heroin.
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Hard News: Laughing from diversity, and…, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
And while talking cheap shots at easy targets you never have to look in the eye might pass muster as “satire” nowadays, it sure looks a lot like good old-fashioned bullying to me. Or is it OK as long as you don’t happen to like the targets?
Steady on. Slater just appeared as a commentator, and it was a bit awkward. That's all.
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Hard News: A dramatic and unremarkable decision, in reply to Sacha,
Foirtunately I have yet to see an anxious stoner (though I know paranoia is an oft-described effect).
The most common symptoms in recreational marijuana ED presentations are panic and tachycardia.
The anti-anxiety component is the CBD, which, as I noted, is present in a lower ratio than it used to be, except where it has been bred back in.
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Hard News: A dramatic and unremarkable decision, in reply to Robyn Gallagher,
Basically, the two treatments are for two totally different types of MS issues and one is not a substitute for another.
But yeah, the more Pharmac-funded treatment options that are available to people with MS, the better.
Ah. Thanks for that, Robyn.
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Hard News: A dramatic and unremarkable decision, in reply to Sacha,
That’s reassuringly grown-up behaviour. Cheers.
My impression is that this may become a disability policy issue beyond MS. There are quite good signs for CBD as a treatment for anxiety disorders. Can you imagine how much better that would be that for be for people on the autism spectrum than SSRIs, let alone something like risperidone?
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Hard News: A dramatic and unremarkable decision, in reply to Ross Bell,
No comment on the PM’s comments.
They did a lot motivate me to write this post, though. So there’s that.
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