Doctors, medical researchers and cancer advocacy groups want the state government to legalise the use of medical marijuana, saying it is an effective treatment for pain including the side effects of chemotherapy.
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In submissions to a NSW upper house inquiry into the issue, the Australian Medical Association, the Cancer Council NSW and the Australian Drug Foundation have all supported the use of medical marijuana in certain circumstances.
The inquiry will conduct its first hearings this week.
Cancer Voices, a cancer patient advocacy group, is pushing for change. ''It is time for a sensible debate about this,'' Cancer Voices NSW chairwoman Sally Crossing said. ''This is not a political or religious issue; it is about being kind to people in a difficult situation, who are in a lot of pain and discomfort.''
Tony Bower, also presenting to the inquiry on Monday, makes therapeutic cannabis tincture - a medicine derived from marijuana - on his property in Kempsey, north of Port Macquarie.
He started out more than a decade ago supplying cannabis to go into hash cookies to a ''comfort group'' in Nimbin. ''A lot of elders like the cookies because it gets rid of the pain but it gives them the giggles and they don't like that,'' he said.
''So I buggered around with things and learnt what I could until I got something that was easier for people to use and was non-psychoactive.''
He now supplies to hundreds of people around Australia, most referred by their doctors.
''It's a legal medicine, it's just the growing that's a problem,'' he said.
''The law needs to change … It's going to sick people who need it.''
More than 100 submissions were made to the inquiry, including from people who already use marijuana for medical reasons.
One 88-year-old woman who did not want to be named told Fairfax Media she had begun using Mr Bower's tincture when she developed chronic pain due to a condition called polymyositis. Just a few drops provided almost instant relief, and reduced her reliance on morphine, which made her drowsy and lethargic.
''I thought there's got to be a better way than this … so I tried the drops and I found they satisfied my pain problem and they didn't make me dopey. I never had an out-of-body experience the whole time, all they did was ease my pain,'' said the woman, who lives in a nursing home.
''I had the consent of both my GP and my specialist rheumatologist.''
In its submission, the AMA said that medical marijuana was an effective treatment for cancer and HIV/AIDS patients, but more research was needed to determine its effectiveness for other conditions such as multiple sclerosis and for chronic pain.
The Australian Drug Foundation is less conservative in its recommendation, calling for it to be made available for people ''suffering intense pain or severe disability as a result of life limiting or debilitating diseases, illnesses or ailments, under strict conditions''.
On Monday, the inquiry will hear from the NSW health and justice departments and the police. It reports to Parliament in May.
