The Tasmania Examiner tells the story of an Australian couple who have testified to a Senate committee who ended up relying up on the black market to source cannabis oil for their son a epilepsy sufferer..
We’ll ignore the thinly veiled coded messages about deserving devout Christians being somehow better than the rest of us if their “journey” explains the utter stupidity of a non regulated medical cannabis system. Dare we mentional that regulated adult use of cannabis isn’t the devils work either!
A “devout Christian” East Coast couple once opposed to any use of cannabis have told a Senate inquiry of the drug’s medicinal benefits.
In their submission to a Senate inquiry on barriers for patients who wished to access medicinal cannabis, Peter and Beverly Rubenach told of their experience using medicinal cannabis to treat their son and Ms Rubenach’s experience using the drug herself.
The pair, who live near St Marys, provided 24/7 care to their son Tim who had severe epilepsy and various other health issues until Tim’s death in 2018.
Tim’s health began deteriorating in 2012 and in 2014 Mr and Mrs Rubenach turned to cannabis to treat their son.
“Being devout Christians we ‘counted the cost’ of breaking the law but all that mattered was doing what was best for Tim’s holistic health and wellbeing,” the couple said in the submission.
They said within hours they witnessed improvements in their son.
“Tim had a life,” they said.
“It minimised his seizures, and calmed him emotionally and mentally, thus having a huge positive impact on his challenging behaviour.”
When Tim required treatment in hospital, Mr and Mrs Rubenach said the staff there asked for Tim to continue using medicinal cannabis.
“It was illegal so medical professionals needed to turn their backs while we smuggled cannabis oil to Tim in yogurt [and] mashed bananas,” they said.
The pair said they also faced challenges purchasing cannabis from strangers on the “black market”, including not knowing what variety they were getting thus having no idea of the CBD/THC ratio, so they began to grow their own supply.
Mrs Rubenach also began using cannabis oil in 2017 to treat migraines.
“While the cannabis oil has not entirely stopped the migrates, the reduction in frequency and severity has been amazing,” the submission said.
Mr and Mrs Rubenach said prior to 2014, they were “totally law-abiding, conservative Christians” who were “completely opposed to any use of cannabis.”
“We took this judgement stance based purely on self-righteousness, misinformation, prejudice and deliberately chosen ignorance,” they said.
The couple said they were now strong advocates for the use of medicinal cannabis.
