‘ So , the Government agreed to appoint such a Council ,’ she said , ‘ but they never did .’ ‘ I continued to contact them to ask ‘ where ’ s the Advisory Council ?’ and I ’ d be told ‘ oh , we ’ re a bit busy ’ or ‘ we ’ re getting to it ’ or ‘ now we ’ re in caretaker mode ’. So here it is , a year later , we ’ ve got the Regulations written and they ’ re very prohibitive , very restrictive and patients have got to jump through hoops to access medical cannabis . So , the Advisory Council was never initiated , the Regulations were orchestrated by one or two individuals who have no background in medical cannabis , who didn ’ t consult and now we ’ re paying the price . It ’ s very poorly written , it ’ s not written with any amount of compassion or desire to see patients get access – it actually reads as being the complete opposite . And that ’ s down to a couple of individuals who refuse to hear any criticism .’
Such harsh words however richly deserved , from someone considered an ally , must have come as a slap round the face to a Department already embroiled in a row .
The interview , together with the Australian Business Review story and a petition by an advocacy group in Queensland , furious at the Government for tweaking existing rules which , as we have mentioned , now make obtaining cannabis products even more difficult than before legislation was passed all seemed to have an effect .
Just over a fortnight later a spate of newspaper stories popped up declaring ‘ Former Liberal to head up cannabis council ’. A more detailed outline was provided on the Department of Health website but the enterprise bears all the hallmarks of policy made on the fly . Although the DoH says the new Council will sit next month , thus far only a Chair has been appointed – and , for medical cannabis campaigners , its is probably not an inspiring choice .
In 2011 during an ABC radio interview about the use of hemp seed as food stuff – something proponents have long argued would provide an excellent industrial opportunity for Australia while bringing the country into line with the rest of the world – the newly installed head of the nascent ‘ Advisory Council on the Medicinal Use of Cannabis ’ was violently opposed .
‘ It needs to be seen as part of a wider campaign to normalise the use of marijuana ,’ he said at the time , making clear , in his view , ‘ cannabis itself as a drug is not safe ‘.
Dr Andrew Southcott , is , as his title suggests , a qualified medic . As former Liberal MP for Boothby in South Australia however – a seat cynics say was ‘ inherited ’ from his mother , esteemed Parliamentarian Heather Southcott – ‘ career politician ’ would be the more accurate label . He resigned at the last election possibly after a failed bid for the Speaker ’ s job in the House but was – and presumably remains – very much of the Party faithful as his voting record will attest . A brief stint as Shadow Employment Participation , Training and Sport under Malcolm Turnbull was fallowed by a fall from grace under Tony Abbot and he remained on the back benches thereafter . Although no mover and shaker , Southcott did hit the headlines in 2015 after it was revealed he spent $ 2,700 of public cash in 2013 flying first class with his wife to watch the Australian Open as a guest of health insurer Medibank . Southcott was the Opposition ’ s Parliamentary Secretary for Primary Healthcare at the time .
His medical experience – hardly extensive , given a working life spent in submission to the Liberal Whip – coupled with such undoubted loyalty makes him perhaps an unsurprising pick for a Federal Health Department known but not loved for its evident antipathy toward the re-introduction of weed to the clinician ’ s armoury .
More appointments will surely follow but the Government – and Southcott himself – face problems . For years ’ research into the possible benefits of cannabis has been met with obstruction with the bulk of funding