Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Aussie man wants licence for cannabis medicine

A man who has developed a cannabis-based medicine is calling for the NSW government to approve his application to manufacture and distribute the cure-all.
Tony Bower and a handful of supporters travelled from the state's north to protest outside the NSW parliament on Tuesday, bringing with them a giant inflatable marijuana joint to use as a prop. The Kempsey man developed the medicine 10 years ago and is now giving away the liquid cannabis tincture to about 300 people around Australia.
He now wants to manufacture it in commercial quantities but says the state government won't grant him a licence. The oil-and-alcohol based medicine is extracted from the cannabis plant but Mr Bower says all the drug's illegal properties have been removed from it.
He says medical cannabis can relieve pain and nausea in cancer and HIV suffers, while it can also be used treat other illnesses, from multiple sclerosis to post-traumatic stress disorder. "It's for pain relief, it's for people who are sick and dying," Mr Bower told reporters outside parliament in Sydney. "I've been trying (to get approval) for two years or more, and it's just going nowhere."

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