PRESS RELEASE - 3rd September 2002

Invitation To Medical Cannabis Users

NSW Compassion Club representatives will be outside Parliament House, Macquarie St., Tuesday morning, to introduce you to some of the people from NSW who rely on cannabis as their primary source of therapeutic relief.

Please make the effort to come down and see for yourself the difficulty of their situation. Imagine you had chronic pain, or a cyst on the brain, or HIV/ AIDS, or you were in the process of chemotherapy. You tried endless medicine for relief and then you found one that worked. A herb that gives you enormous relief - allows you to sleep deeply for a few uninterrupted hours, enables you to eat without feeling nausea, enables you to have a cheerful moment because you are not consumed by pain. However, the herb is illegal. It's a criminal offence to use it even though it is widely used and expensive on the black market. Cannabis is like a magic pill to many sufferers.

We will be in Macquarie Street from 10 am till 11.30am on Tuesday, then we will adjourn to the Domain behind Parliament House for the day. Please come, see and hear for yourself. Following are short profiles of two patients who will be there.

Daryl Brunsdon. "Smoulder" is a 62-year-old Cerebral Palsy patient. Come and listen to his story about how cannabis has helped him through his extraordinary life, since his refusal to live isolated in an institution. How NSW police embarrassingly have to confiscate his medicine. Each time they take his cannabis, no fine, no arrest, and no court attendance notice. On one occasion police held his shaking hand to sign a caution notice - he protested and demanded to go to court, but no go. Fortunately police can figure out for themselves that this fellow is already disabled enough.

Gary Coombs, a 42-year-old MS patient would love to explain his situation and prognosis. He can explain how while using cannabis, he doesn't need the pharmaceutical drugs that most other MS patients are prescribed. He may talk about his parents' care that has kept him from being institutionalised. Gary seldom talks about the future though, or his parents ailing health and a 'home' that he'll end up in, the drugs he'll be required to take and their side effects.

For more information call 0427 409 626.

In light of the NSW Governments' monitoring of other Governments' approach and progress on the use of medical cannabis. I've been asked to remind all about the 150,000 - 200,000 Australians who suffer from Hepatitis C (HCV). Many HCV patients in NSW use cannabis, and yet they seem to be another patient group not mentioned adequately by the NSW Working Party on Medical Cannabis.