The Australian woman raided by law enforcement for manufacturing medicinal cannabis oil, which she provided for free to terminally ill patients, said she has tried to meet with Health Department officials for more than two years prior to the crackdown at her home, according to an Australian Broadcasting Corporation report.
Jenny Hallam, 44, said she has worked with Greens MP Tammy Franks in the effort to legalize medicinal cannabis in South Australia but the bid “just can’t seem to get anywhere.”
“I can’t even get a meeting with [SA Premier] Jack Snelling for the last two years … they keep putting it off to the drug and alcohol abuse minister, which we find insulting,” Hallam said in the report. “We’re not abusing anything; we’re not abusing any drugs. We’re using a drug responsibly and carefully and it’s saving people’s lives and it’s making people’s lives better and that’s all we’re trying to do.”
After the raid was made public, Franks called it “outrageous” saying patients had “been failed by the slowness of reforms.”
SA Innovation Minister Kyam Maher said that while the federal law does permit specialist doctors to prescribe medicinal cannabis, which is dispensed by pharmacies, further reforms will likely be discussed by South Australia officials during a meeting later this month. He said he would look into arranging a meeting between not only Hallam and state officials but “the industry in general.”
Snelling’s office indicated that the raid is in line with the law and is “a matter for police, the Director of Public Prosecutions and the courts.”