AUSTRALIA – NSW. The first medicinal cannabis farm has been officially opened at an undisclosed location near Tamworth, NSW.
The 47-hectare property has been named in honor of Dan Haslam, a patient whose battle with cancer contributed to the recent legislations to legalize medicinal cannabis in Australia. Acting Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce launched the opening of the farm this week, and congratulated the Haslam family for their contributing efforts to make this a reality.
The opening of the farm comes a year after Dan Haslam died.
“Amongst your grief, which you will carry for a long time, you have managed to use that energy to do something in a positive way,” Acting PM Joyce said. “When you can find a use for any part of a plant that can assist people when they are ill, when they are in pain, you should do it.”
Acting PM Joyce also revealed his personal reasons for backing this decision. “We’ve got to make sure that everything — for my brother Tim who’s got bowel cancer, stage four — that we do everything in our power to make sure we help people,” he said.
Victoria’s Decision to Legislate for the Industry
Following the The United in Compassion (UIC) farm near Tamworth to grow the medicinal cannabis for Australia, the State of Victoria has decided to legislate for the industry, also.
“I think it’s great news for patients all over Australia, somebody had to make the first move and I reckon that should put pressure on other states to follow suit as soon as possible,” Troy Langman, spokesman for UIC said.
The Australian Federal Government is currently working on the framework for the cultivation and supply of medicinal cannabis. Victoria has become the first state of Australia to pass legislation allowing medicinal cannabis use.
According to Haslam’s family who have conducted their own overseas research, Australia is “leaps and bounds” ahead of other countries in this field.
This article (Australian Acting PM opens First Medicinal Cannabis Farm) is a free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author AnonWatcher and AnonHQ.com.
Not opposed to it in any way, but like to know where the tenders were for this, how many farmers applied for the tender, who operates the farm, how much revenue will it raise for the land owners and will it benefit the surrounding community… sounds to me contracts were awarded to friends with influence….. the limited info on the above just makes me sad, did any real farmers get this opportunity????
Very good question!!
Love the idea, and this country could use a good revenue boost, however have to say I agree totally with Gerard there hasn’t been a lot of talk over here as to whom can tender for it and the cut the ‘farmer’ gets at the end of production.
But with Joyce at the helm I can say the chances of farmers that he is beholden to in his electorate and the big business that’s going to drive it, Im sure someones going to be much better off than the majority of farmers. Not that the opposition has anything more to offer in way of less corruption.