Legalise Cannabis Victoria MPs have called out Premier Jacinta Allan for delaying a decision on allowing medical cannabis patients to drive – instead preferring to spend millions of taxpayers’ dollars on research that has already been done.
“Jacinta Allan may be on a driving track today, but I know she is intentionally ‘stalling’ on this decision,” MP Rachel Payne said.
“In 2023, Dan Andrews promised an answer ‘in coming months’ followed by a guarantee to have it fixed by 2024. Now, with a new Premier, it’s mid-2026 at best. She’s in the slow lane.
“How many times will this government betray patients when it comes just giving an answer on medical cannabis driving?
“Around 3 per cent of Australians use cannabis for medical purposes, but any trace elements of the cannabinoid, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in your system, despite being unimpaired, will automatically result in a loss of license.
“This happens to thousands of Victorians every year.”
Ms Payne said it was disappointing that almost $5 million of taxpayers money was going to a driving study that would not deliver results until mid-2026, especially given the Victorian Parliament started debating medical cannabis driving in 2016.
“Given the 10-year time blowout, I am calling on the Premier to follow Tasmania’s lead and allow Victorians, unimpaired and prescribed medical cannabis, to drive without fear of recrimination.
“And I remind the Premier that researchers already assessed 40 medical cannabis patients and found ‘negligible impact on driving performance’ in a study published in February.”
Legalise Cannabis MP David Ettershank said in Victoria you risk losing your license for taking your medication, yet there were no tests for other medications (like barbiturates or opioids) or even cocaine.
“The Premier is showing no compassion for the thousands of Victorians prescribed medical cannabis to relieve chronic pain, alleviate cancer treatment side-effects, manage stress and sleeplessness and treat other illnesses,” he said.
“The Premier is playing politics. She’s discriminating against responsible Victorians prescribed med-can, by kicking the ‘research’ can down the road.”