Let's take a look back at how the Government has failed us so miserably by not legalising medicinal cannabis.

Shortly after been given a command by the voters in the general election of August 1 2022, Prime Minister Mark Brown failed to meet in the Executive Council with two other required members of the Cabinet, Mac and Maggie, to initiate provisions for the issue of licences that allow for the personal importation of medicinal cannabis by all travellers and the  import, export, production and manufacturing of the cultivation of the prohibited marijuana plant for individual and commercial growers to help alleviate the physical and mental anguish of Cook Islands patients, and help to kick-start our medicinal cannabis industry.

After promising to "move very quickly", even to this day, with the full complement of Cabinet Ministers to meet in the Executive Council, the PM has done nothing to free up the barbaric and inhumane laws on marijuana that have brutalised our people for decades.

The PM has not upheld the Ministry of Health Act 2013 that allows for the personal importation of medicinal cannabis by all travellers, as long as all the requirements are met and thereby has interfered in the sanctity of patient-physician relationship

The Government has fallen flat on its face by not legalising medicinal cannabis with the numerous pathways that are provided under the Health and Drugs Acts.

Feckless Minister of Health, Rose Brown, idly sits by when she herself could have adopted an appropriate plan like another nations medicinal cannabis program, and could have allowed for pharmaceutical and therapeutic medicinal cannabis products with the stroke of a pen.

She couldn't even initiate clinical trials for medicinal cannabis under the Health Act.

What is especially galling, is the Government cut-copied and pasted the Narcotics and Misuse of Drugs Act 2004 from other nations with their only contribution being to make the penalties more severe.

You would think the Government could now cut-copy and paste another nation's medicinal cannabis laws to be enacted for the Cook Islands, but they lack the decency to do so.

The Cook Islands over the decades has spent a large amount of money on the regulation of seabed minerals and travel expenses for their participation in international seabed meetings.

It's time to stop trying to promote the harvesting of manganese nodules and start promoting the harvesting of medical marijuana.

Sincerely, Steve Boggs.