8th February 2024 09:44
Victorian Legislative Council, Melbourne
Rachel PAYNE (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (09:44):
Last Sunday, a very hot day here in Melbourne, I got to meet with many of my constituents and friends who wanted to come and meet with my colleague David Ettershank and me to discuss how our first year as Legalise Cannabis MPs in Parliament has been, as well as some of the progress that we have made here.
Front and centre in that conversation was the topic of the government’s closed-circuit track trial, and people wanted a bit of an update on what is happening with this closed-circuit track trial – how do we get involved, where is the government at?
Unfortunately, I was unable to give them any sort of an update because I have not really received one, some 12 months on from us bringing this into Parliament. I do look forward to presenting more of a case to the minister and getting some progress on that matter, particularly for my constituents.
What that really highlighted for me was that this is a real front-and-centre issue, and this is impacting patients’ ability to live and ability to have agency in their lives.
Secondly, I spoke to a lovely mum named Sally who was really curious about how we are going with pill testing. For her – she has teenage kids – it was really important and a no-brainer for her just to provide that security and safety, particularly to young people.
I think it was a really engaging conversation we had around more broadly how we approach harm minimisation.
Finally, I got to speak with a young man named Jake who suffers with MS. He has recently become a medicinal cannabis patient, but he had to advocate with his doctors in learning more about that space. Thank you to everyone who came along on the day.
[ENDS]
