Maitland people have shown overwhelming support for medical cannabis.
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News a trial for medical cannabis will start early next year in the Hunter was welcomed by Maitland residents this week and reinvigorated the debate about decriminalising the drug.
Many readers said terminally ill people should have the right to use whatever would ease their pain and this sentiment was reflected in the Mercury’s online poll.
A whopping 97.67 per cent of the 472 people who voted were in favour of the legalisation of medical cannabis for terminally ill people, which left just 2.33 per cent opposed.
Resident Muriah May lost her mother to cancer three months ago and took to social media to support the use of medical cannabis.
“Honestly, when in the predicament you will try anything to ease their suffering, hopefully this is going to be a positive step towards finding relief for those with terminal illness,” she wrote.
Chris West was another resident who lost his mother to cancer and wanted to the trial.
“Mum died a very long and painful death from breast cancer,” he said.
“If this would have been available for her, and so many others I have known who have suffered horrendously, then perhaps things would have been far easier on both her and everyone watching her suffer.”
Many people argued that medical cannabis was a better option because it did not have the side effects of many cancer treatment drugs.
Others thought the trial should also be open to those who suffer from chronic pain.
“What about those with non-terminal chronic pain?” Sarah Matthews wrote on the Mercury Facebook page.
“They will live a good many years in chronic pain. Legalise it, it’s pain relief and it is needed.”
Those who were against the drug’s legalisation were mainly concerned about abuse of the distribution system.
The 2016 Hunter trial at Newcastle’s Calvary Mater Hospital is part of the state government’s $9 million medical cannabis clinical trial program.
Patients with advanced cancer who are 18 years or older, and who meet specific additional criteria, will be considered for the trial.
Information on the enrolment process has not yet been released.
For more information email cannabistrial@doh.health.nsw.gov.au