Medical cannabis for son big financial toll on family
cannabis oil prescription, Shelly Venables said.
“Within 10 minutes of taking it all the leg tremors and everything would just stop. He’d just lie back in the chair, cross his feet and fold his arms and then just start chatting.
“It was just profound, really, after years of agony and torture and there he was. Just talking to us.
“That first two weeks, that first bottle, I think our jaw was on the ground more than it wasn’t. We were just so blown away with seeing Ollie back for the first time in so long.”
The Venables are among hundreds of families who are lobbying Parliament on a law change which will decriminalise medical cannabis for some people. Most of those families say it does not go far enough. The health committee is now working on its report, which is due back at the end of July.
The law change before Parliament will eventually make medical cannabis more readily available and could reduce its cost, though the new regime is expected to take at least two years to implement.
In the meantime, there will be a legal exemption from prosecution for terminally ill people who have illicit cannabis.
Shelly Venables wants the ability to be able to grow or buy other forms of medical cannabis legally. But because Ollie is not terminally ill, he or his family will not be exempt from prosecution.
Health Minister David Clark has already ruled out broadening the legal exemption, saying it was intended to be a compassionate measure until the full regime was in place.
Shelly Venables said she was not willing to break the law to provide pain relief for her son.
“We are trying to raise lawabiding citizens. And it just seems so hard. The law is too harsh.”
Parents pay $500 to $600 a fortnight for drug even at discount price