Cannabis use still a crime, experts warn

Many Kiwis believe wrongly that they won’t get in trouble if they’re caught using medicinal cannabis without a prescription. By

Cannabis prescriptions can be lifechanging for people with chronic pain, mental illness and insomnia, but experts warn they’re being caught out by a lack of government action to increase accessibility.

Geoff Noller, a researcher at the University of Otago’s bioethics centre, said many wrongly believed they wouldn’t get in trouble if they were caught using the drug without a doctor’s signoff.

‘‘After the referendum . . . people have convinced themselves cannabis is OK to use medicinally, even without a prescription, because it was so close. It’s not. It’s getting people in trouble,’’ he said.

‘‘Most doctors have a lukewarm or no understanding of medicinal cannabis, or who is eligible for a prescription ... people in pain are falling through the gaps.’’

Robert Pollock is one person who fell through that gap, almost at the cost of his future. The 39-year-old Marton resident had a seizure in June behind the wheel of his car, which became airborne before crashing into a bank beside the road with his daughters inside.

Pollock’s seizure was a sideeffect of a new anti-anxiety medication. On the scene, when asked what was in his system, he told police he had also smoked cannabis four days before. ‘‘I wanted to be honest. I believed the prime minister when she stood up there on TV after the referendum and said cops wouldn’t go after smalltime users or possessors.’’

Pollock began smoking cannabis semi-regularly in 2016, five years after the death of his toddler, and after his breakup with the mother of his three other children.

He wanted something to help him sleep and get him off other pills. In 2018, feeling confident cannabis was helping, he asked his doctor for a prescription so he could use it legally. He said his doctor told him he didn’t feel educated or comfortable enough to do it. Pollock said he continued to ask in the years that followed, and was told the same thing.

He thought he was in the clear following his crash, but in September police charged him with driving under the influence. The charge was later withdrawn.

‘‘If I’d been prescribed, this would never have happened,’’ he said. ‘‘My whole life could have been ruined . . . I could have been a criminal, but I am just in pain.’’

He wasn’t upset with his GP,

but frustrated with the system for not doing more to educate doctors.

In a response to an Official Information Act request, Derek Fitzgerald of the Ministry of Health’s medicinal cannabis agency said GPs were generally reluctant to prescribe cannabis because of the lack of information and data on how and why it should be done. He said an educational resource for GPs would be released at the end of this year.

Noller said he had a draft copy, and wasn’t optimistic about whether it would change the system.

He said politicians, policymakers, police and prosecutors were rarely on the same page.

‘‘There is a huge difference between how police perceive a case and how I see it,’’ he said, describing how he sometimes acted as an expert witness for people facing drug charges. ‘‘When politicians say they are in support of medicinal cannabis, but don’t change the law, it means nothing ... If doctors aren’t comfortable with cannabis, why would police be?’’

Dr Mark Hotu was not comfortable with cannabis, and took little notice when medicinal cannabis was legalised.

‘‘In 2018 a lot of my patients were home visits. A lot of elderly and people in chronic pain. Many couldn’t get out of bed, let alone their house,’’ he said. ‘‘More and more were asking about cannabis, but I’d just say, ‘oh, you can’t get it in New Zealand’ or ‘it’s not legal’ to stop people asking me.’’

Eventually he became curious and enrolled in online courses. The more he learnt, the more complicated it seemed, but he was sold on the science and anecdotal evidence. By 2019 he had teamed up with three other GPs to open a clinic called Green Doctors, which specialised in medicinal cannabis.

Hotu said many who needed medicinal cannabis weren’t getting it, and the product they did get was still too expensive, even though there was huge demand.

‘‘Last year we saw 30 people a week. This year it’d be about 60 a week. A monthly prescription can start under $200, but that is a huge amount that the Government won’t subsidise,’’ he said.

Sinead Gill.