Dear Editor: There are provisions in the Ministry of Health Act under Relationships with other laws that do not limit any other law of the Cook Islands and are not intended to limit or exclude any civil right or remedy unless this is expressly provided for and compliance with this Act does not, of itself, indicate that common law duty of care has been satisfied.

What does this all mean when it comes to the relationship between the laws of medicinal cannabis passed in 2024 and the Narcotic and Misuse of Drugs Act 2004?

Health Secretary Bob Williams told us Cook Island doctors have undergone special training on how to prescribe medicinal cannabis (pakalolo). A patient can get a prescription from a doctor overseas while travelling and bring it back into the country but there are no medicinal pakalolo products available in pharmacies for doctors to prescribe locally.

The provision in the Health Act stipulates the law cannot limit any other law, in this case the Medicinal Cannabis Act 2024 has been limited by no medicinal pakalolo products being available locally and furthermore the law cannot exclude any civil right or remedy unless this is expressly provided for.

The only way to uphold these provisions in the Health Act that provides for a remedy and will not exclude one's civil rights is to allow patients to grow their own medicinal pakalolo because this is a way of correcting a wrong by legal means.

The common law duty of care for medicinal pakalolo patients has not been satisfied as required in the Health Act.

A common law duty of care is a legal obligation to take reasonable care to avoid actions that could foreseeably harm another person.

The police are not upholding the common law duty of care stipulated for medicinal pakalolo patients in the Health Act and are violating patient’s civil rights that are guaranteed in the Health Act to remedy a situation that relieves an illness that the law has not satisfied.

'The cultivation, supply and possession of cannabis is a law enforcement issue for the police, and will continue to be until legislation says otherwise’, those are the words of police spokesperson and strategic advisor for the police, Trevor Pitt.

It's time for Trevor and the other members of a small group of strategic advisors in the police department to help instruct the police to carry out the legislation that has been passed in the Health Act and rid this nation of medicinal pakalolo patients being abused by the justice system.

Steve Boggs