Thursday, 22 February 2024

Medicinal cannabis

David ETTERSHANK (Western Metropolitan) (18:20): (734) My adjournment tonight is for the Minister for Veterans Minister Suleyman. The action I seek is that the minister urge her federal counterpart the Honourable Matt Keogh to update the Department of Veterans’ Affairs medicinal cannabis policy. Post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury (TBI) are amongst the most common conditions afflicting Australian Defence Force veterans. Research indicates that 8 per cent of serving members and 18 per cent of ex-serving members suffer from PTSD, while a staggering 49 per cent of serving members and 47 per cent of ex-members have incurred some form of traumatic brain injury in the line of duty. Veterans suffering from these conditions are being prescribed a raft of opioids and psychotropic medications, as well as sleeping pills. These drugs, subsidised by the DVA, come with a range of debilitating side effects. They sap users of their vitality and wellbeing, reducing them, as veterans have said, to zombies. Worse, they are causing severe levels of harm, including suicidal ideation and death amongst veterans, as recorded by the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide.

Medicinal cannabis products have been shown to be incredibly effective in treating PTSD and traumatic brain injury, and they are safer and cheaper than the psychotropic medications approved by the DVA. Veterans who use medicinal cannabis to treat these conditions have described the relief in returning to something approximating a normal life. Quoting one veteran, it is like ‘a switch has been switched back on, everything’s bright again’. Medicinal cannabis is readily prescribed for PTSD and TBI for non-service members and veterans. However, the DVA’s current policies do not approve their use. This is leaving veterans seeking less harmful means of treating their conditions in an impossible bind. Either they can pay for their unsubsidised medicinal cannabis scripts themselves, which can cost them thousands of dollars a month, or they can source cannabis from the black market, risking criminal conviction and prison. So the action I seek is that the Minister for Veterans advocate to her federal counterpart to change the outdated DVA policy to include medicinal cannabis for the treatment of PTSD and traumatic brain injury, allowing our veterans access to an approved medication before more veterans die or have their lives ruined by dangerous alternatives.