The Cannabis Referendum Committee will be providing a progress report on medicinal cannabis soon.

The committee includes several people, including Health Secretary Bob Williams, Marie Francis and pharmacist Andrew Orange and Solicitor-General Lauaki Jason Annandale.

The chair being Tingika Elikana.

The report is expected to be based on the findings from the study visit and consultations that were undertaken in New Zealand and Australia.

Elikana had earlier told CI News that the two members of the committee - Francis and pharmacist Orange – were fact finding in Australia and New Zealand.

He had said that from there they would receive a report on what they discovered. “Ideally, we would like to see an overview about what products are out there, how we could regulate them, and whether there is an opportunity for us to produce our own.”

The Committee says that the priority is a medicinal cannabis regime and the challenge is not to simply transpose the New Zealand or Australia formulae onto the Cook Islands but to select those components that are applicable so that “we can enable a regime that fits our aspirations”.

In response to the August 2022 referendum on medicinal cannabis, which was in favour, with 62 per cent of respondents voting “yes”- the Committee was then formed.

The referendum asked: “Should we review our cannabis laws to allow for research and medicinal use?”

Te Marae Ora secretary Bob Williams in May, told Radio New Zealand that medicinal cannabis products could be available to some people in the Cook Islands as early as June and will “definitely” be available by the end of the year.

While, Elikana said he would like to see all the measures for regulating importation of medicinal cannabis, as well as regulating the possible production of it in the Cook Islands, ready by Christmas.

This week a number of letter writers wrote to the Cook Islands News raising their concerns on the referendum on marijuana legalisation and the direction in which the government was proceeding. 

Pakaleka Keane from Hawaii said the Cook Islands government is following the path New Zealand has taken for the sale of marijuana and CBD. 

He said he believes there are better paths for Cook Islands to take than that which New Zealand has implemented. 

“These paths are more affordable and would reap not only a cash influx to Cook Island government tax coffers, as has occurred in the US and Canada but, also boost tourism, as has recently occurred in Thailand. The New Zealand formula, I believe, is overburdened by a number of bureaucratic requirements that do not make marijuana and CBD affordable for citizens, something which a responsible government review should consider.”