Banned doctor champions cannabis use
Queensland doctor Andrew Katelaris has been fighting for the right to use cannabis to treat his patients for years.
The doctor was deregistered in 2005 after he refused to stop recommending medical cannabis to his seriously ill patients.
Dr Katelaris told the Times while a clinical trial into medical cannabis was a step in the right direction to legalise the plant, he did not believe it was the best way to test the drug on patients.
"Cannabis can be used to relieve an enormous amount of pain and suffering and is safer to use than taking Panadol," he said.
"It can be extremely effective in treating illness and epilepsy, but testing cannabis in a placebo trial on children who have epilepsy is ridiculous.
"The children in the trial will be treated like lab rats and for nothing.
"Children don't understand what epilepsy is so results in a placebo trial will not be accurate.
"Patients should be treated depending on their individual issues and that should reflect how the medical cannabis is delivered as well."
A Busselton doctor who chose to remain anonymous said she believed cannabis could have a place in WA medicine.
"I would be open to the idea but it would have to researched and tested," she said.
"There are plenty of medications available for pain relief and to help slow down illness but a lot of them have side effects and it's always good to have more options."
Dr Katelaris has had a lot of experience working with cannabidiol cannabis, which unlike tetrahydrocannabinol cannabis, is non-psychoactive.
He said he had successfully used the oil to treat children suffering from epilepsy and adults who were seriously ill.
"Cannabis is not a miracle cure, so you can't give it to someone with terminal cancer and weeks to live and expect them to survive, but it has anti-cancer effects and can be used in conjunction with surgery, instead of chemo to treat early-stage cancers," he said.
"It's impossible to hurt an organ with cannabis, unlike using chemotherapy and radiotherapy, which can cause organ death."
