LINDSAY CARTER WAS WAITING OVER 12 MONTHS FOR HIS MEDICAL CANNABIS TREATMENT TO BE IMPORTED 

 

After a lengthy and time consuming process from early 2015, final approval was given to the doctor in February 2016 by the Federal TGA.  During that process we also successfully advocated for the Health (Drugs and Posions) Regulation in Queensland to be amended in December 2015. Queensland Health took several months to develop application forms for the doctor and pharmacist, and delayed access by duplicating the TGA assessment process.  There were also delays waiting for the Canadian supplier Tilray to develop the product, as the US company could not provide a compassionate supply. 

 

From Change.org petition - March 2016

 

Please sign the petition today and join our protests to help my son Lindsay and other patients have urgent access to medical cannabis NOW

 

• Lindsay's doctor already has Special Access Scheme (SAS) Category B treatment approvals from the Federal Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA).

• The import section of the TGA are waiting to finalise the pharmacist's import licence but Queensland Health bureacracy is delaying access by duplicating the TGA doctor's assessment process at a state level.

 

Burearacracy is putting my son's life and other patients life at risk by delaying access to medical cannabis. Lindsay is a 17-year-old Brisbane teenager who was treated with medical cannabis in 2014 in the US for his brain tumour, epilepsy, chronic pain and nausea. He was able to lawfully access it from a dispensary within 24 hours of it being recommended by his US doctors.  Back in Australia it has been a very different story, but his case is paving the way for others patients who need urgent access and cannot wait years for research trials or for locally grown cannabis products to become available.

 

TGA Federal Approval 

 

After almost 12 months of a long and arduous Federal TGA assessement process, alongside advocating for changes to the state's Health Drugs and Poisons Regulations, the TGA finalised Lindsay’s Queensland doctor’s Special Access Scheme (SAS) application and granted the doctor Category B treatment approvals to treat Lindsay with specified medical cannabis products that are waiting to be imported from a Canadian medical cannabis company.

 

Senior doctors in the TGA accepted Lindsay’s doctor’s opinion that there is clinical justification for him to treat him with medical cannabis products that are available overseas but not in Australia. I have given Lindsay's doctor my full informed and written consent that I will assume full responsibility for all and any adverse outcomes of the use of the medical cannabis treatment.

 

TGA import section waiting on State approval to issue Import Licence

 

The import section of the TGA are waiting for a notice from the Queensland government that the medical cannabis when landed and cleared by Customs at Queensland airport will be “lawfully” possessed, supplied and administered under state law. The only persons who require state approvals under the state Health Drugs and Poisons Regulations to “lawfully” possess, supply or administer are the pharmacist, Lindsay and I. Approval under the Health Regulations will also act as an exemption from criminal prosecution under the Drugs Misuse Act as it is an offence to “unlawfully” possess or supply cannabis in Queensland without authorisation or justification or excuse (defence of necessity). Queensland Health have had over 4 months to work with the TGA to sort out the state approval process since the Health Regulations were changed in December, to ensure that there was no duplication of processes that would cause unnecessary or undue delays.

 

WHAT’S HOLDING UP LINDSAY’S MEDICAL CANNABIS TREATMENT TODAY

 

On 18 March 2016 Lindsay’s doctor and pharmacist's state applications, and the supporting documents that were sent to the TGA during the Federal assessment were sent to Queensland Health.

 

On 31 March we held a protest outside Queensland Health over the delay.  The Director General of Queensland Health, Dr Mike Walsh, met with us and gave Lindsay and I, his undertaking that an approval would be finalised by the end of the following week, 9 April. He also gave an undertaking that he would contact the TGA, and would not be duplicating, at a state level, the TGA SAS assessment process, or be referring it to an outside panel for review.

 

Dr Mike Walsh – Director General of Queensland Health has now gone against his word!

 

Instead of sending Lindsay’s doctor and pharmacist state approval, he sent Lindsay’s doctor a letter requesting an onerous amount of additional information that has already been sent to Q Health on 18 March.Dr Mike Walsh is duplicating the TGA process, because he states the TGA had not called him back.  He expects updated specialists reports which are time consuming and costly, and has also referred Lindsay's application to an outside clinical group for review, and is also assessing Lindsay's applications according to provisions that are proposed in a new Bill the Public Health (Medicinal Cannabis) Bill that is not law and has not even been presented to Queensland Parliament.

 

NO MORE DELAYS OR UNJUST LAWS!

 

After spending Good Friday in hospital due to a lengthy seizure and after prolonged and uncontrolled vomiting the doctors feared that my son may have suffered a brain hemorrhage.There is nothing worse than watching a loved one suffer when you know that something can be done to help them. Medical Cannabis is an already effective and proven treatment for my son Lindsay and there are tens of thousands of other Queensland and Australian patients waiting on lawful access.

 

Lindsay’s medical cannabis treatment as recommended and overseen by world leading cannabis experts has:

 

• significantly reduced the size of his brain tumour and the swelling around the tumour

• effectively controlled his epilepsy – tonic clonic and focal seizures that are not effectively controlled with pharmaceutical drugs

• effectively relieved pain and suffering from chronic pain and nausea

• stimulated his appetite

 

Off medical cannabis treatment the tumour grows - the seizures, pain and nausea return, he has difficulty eating and he has no quality of life. Any growth in the tumour - every seizure could cause death, further disability and life long brain injury.

 

• conventional anti-epileptic drugs do not control Lindsay's seizures

• surgeon does not recommend operating due to the risks to the part of the brain that is critical for cognitive functioning, learning, communication, comprehension and memory.

 

EVIDENCE CANNABIS REDUCES LINDSAY'S BRAIN TUMOUR

 

You can view Lindsay's MRI results on medical cannabis oil here.

 

TIME FOR MORE ACTION

 

What the State Health Department is not only proposing but has already put in action is unjust at every level.

I will no longer stand by and tolerate any further delays or allow any government or bureaucrat to play god with my son’s life.

 

No parent should live in fear of losing a child or loved or be treated as a criminal to save their child's life.

 

State approval should be a formality not an inquisition.

 

 

Patients should not have to wait any more than 1 day for cannabis to be approved for medical purposes especially when there is already Federal TGA approval.

 

 

Please sign and share this petition and help patients like my son Lindsay who needs urgent access to his medicine.

 

 

 

 

Please also join us for further protests outside Queensland Healh and Parliament House on 19 - 21 April 2016 against the unjust state burearcratic processes and the proposed Bill. 

 

 

Thank you 

Lindsay's mum Lanai Carter