The New England region of NSW (Kamilaroi/Gomeroi Country) politically, lies somewhere to the right of mainstream Australian Toryism. They keep returning Barnaby Joyce after all. Conservative Australia is notoriously extra conservative in all matters pertaining to drug law reform. Especially cannabis. The drug most regularly blamed by shock jocks as the reason why some people both young and old effectively opt out of capitalism and do nothing. For all the cannabis stereotypes floating around the western world, Australia is more self-assured over the Stoner Sloth stereotype than most. After all, if the majority behaviour a society has witnessed with respect to the ingestion of cannabinoids stems from lots of high potency THC flower in young people without any controls in sight, then perceptions about people who overindulge in that will emerge.
The treating of a medical condition with cannabinoid therapeutics, under the supervision of a medical practitioner is an entirely different thing all together. It invariably involves a balanced cannabinoid intake (mostly CBD with THC as needed but usually in modest doses) and safer methods of ingestion beyond choofing and chopping up hoses.
Australia as a body-politic may regularly drink itself into a stupor with no reputational harm done (*cough, Barnaby*). But that same body politic takes a particularly nasty view of persons resembling the lazy sloth stereotype. This is because the right wing press spent most of the last thirty years scapegoating welfare beneficiaries across the western world. Australian Anslingerism manifests as a creature crafted by News Ltd, Ninefax and Stokes. The ad execs who built the stoner sloth campaign were working off data/surveys/focus groups all likely rote-repeating the stereotype that the media fed them.
I first heard the name Lucy Haslam in 2014. Skimming headlines and saw a reference to shock jock Alan Jones and cannabis. Who wouldn’t click on that? From then through to her appearance on Australian Story, and to the eventual passing of Dan’s Law in 2016 I followed this person doing the seeming impossible. In the face of the firm stereotypes and stigma outlined above, Lucy made everyday Australians (and their MPs) aware of the dire need to recognise that cannabis has legitimate medicinal uses and it ought be made more accessible for persons requiring it. It was a simple message that cut through where past endeavours at reform had stumbled since the 1970s.
The calibre and status of Lucy as messenger also allowed mainstream Australia, even those traditionally unfriendly to the devil’s lettuce, to accept and agree with the message. That’s how the cut-through happened. Full respect to the Mountain Gnomes and the battles they fought and won, also to any of a young David Heilpern’s clients from the pioneering days of the MC for HIV patients in the 1980’s and the incredulous risks those people took to save lives. But hating hippies is something mainstream Australia is pretty good at.
Lucy’s message was cutting through at a time we’ll later look back on as a period of early-21st Century fixer-uppering of the various Drug War drug law stuff-ups of the latter 20th Century. She visited the corridors of power during a time when most voters then agreed with the proposition that cannabis was medicine and should be treated as such.
Lucy had to do this whilst even those who agreed with the proposition that ‘weed was medicine’ still held on to strong concerns pertaining to its abuse potential if not properly controlled. The Australian MC industry as a whole needs to continue her example. Stigma can easily make a roaring comeback if people keep intentionally playing on the negative stoner stigma to push out social media tiles featuring recreational cannabis imagery. In 2023, some ridiculously high percentage of Australians aged 18-75 have consumed cannabis at-least once in their lifetime. The electorate can appreciate it as both a useful medicine when used appropriately and something with abuse potential if not. Be mindful when communicating to the electorate.
When it looked as if Dan’s Law needed fixing circa 2017/18 I volunteered my ear should any patients, particularly veterans with PTSD, need advice. Lucy introduced me to the brave and incomparable Lee, an Afghanistan veteran who was either the first or second vet to be partially covered by DVA for MC. He was also the first vet to have his Storz & Bickel products paid for on the federal government dime. The irresistible irony being that a state govt entity had recently confiscated an older model of the same product that our man had in his possession. Lucy also put Derek Pyrah in touch with me when he and Missy were in a spot of bother in 2020. If you’re reading this far, you know and love Derek (and Missy) and you know Derek’s (still very much unfolding) story. But this is a thank you to Lucy, not a rundown on all the rad adventures her introductions have sent me on.
Thing is, Lucy is at the heart of a million stories like this. She makes sure people know people.
Lucy’s story is one (to paraphrase Lou) of taking hit-up after hit-up until the line is broken. From a standing start as a retired nurse from a region in Australia known for having backward views on most things, Lucy taking a progressive stance on medicinal cannabis and getting Tamworth (even Barnaby) behind her is no small feat. It’s the sort of feat that warrants inquiry from the media. Do the work and the stories take care of themselves.
The telling of the struggle of the entire Haslam family (and their closest advisors) against the backdrop of increasingly liberalised cannabis laws globally 2013-15, resonated in Australia. Their work built up such a head of steam that when the time came for both sides of federal politics to just “make something happen that 90% of the population really wanted them to happen”, i.e the legalisation of cannabis for medicinal purposes and the ability of certain medical practitioners to prescribe it, her odds were looking good in 2014/15. The only question was would medicinal cannabis receive its own bespoke regulation or would it be treated as a scheduled medicine.
Via various political chicanery, it emerged that both the federal and shadow cabinet were prepared to create the thing we now know as The Australian System of regulation of Medicinal Cannabis on the proviso that the Therapeutic Goods Administration have authority to regulate cannabis effectively treating cannabinoids like THC and CBD the same as any other medicine. Doctor, prescription, pharmacist, patient.
That’s the essence of Dan’s Law even if the 2016 wording didn’t quite get us there. That’s the Plymouth Rock that a vibrant and never-dull Australian Medicinal Cannabis industry of 2023/24 is now predicated on. The 2016 expectation was that MC would be prescribed wheresoever the Special Access Scheme and Authorised Prescriber criteria were met. The 2016 belief was that the existing framework for how medical practices are structured and regulated would be sufficient to handle the volume of likely interest in medicinal cannabis.
!
This week’s news from Lucy that she’ll be stepping back and handing on the baton was both sad and happy. For some, the MC industry has grown and evolved into a 24/7 work-cycle for both employees and employers and this overflows into the advocacy space. If anyone has earned a rest, she has. Driving reform, workplace reform, maintaining industry standards, GMP and import issues, advertising issues, up-skilling medical practitioners. It is exhausting for us mere mortals. We all owe Lucy a debt of thanks for keeping it up for ten years. Am very happy that for the time being she has more time with Lou, family, including Daisy.
Laws have a tendency to change when politicians figure out that this advocate, pushing for sensible change is not going away and will never go away until you change the law and then monitor it properly so it doesn’t beget a broken system. These were the fixed but long-shot goals of of the Haslam clan and the then growing team around them at UIC and AMCA.
It’s like a field goal kicked from 40 metres out with your un-favoured foot. For the southern states, that’s akin to kicking a bullsh*t goal from 55 on the run. For the world game, what Lucy and fam pulled off is simply Gazza’ 96. Chips (the obstacles to change: the stigma & stereotypes), shoots and scores.
Thank you.
Mat Henderson 