An Act to amend the Public Health (Medicinal Cannabis) Act 2016 to ensure the affordability of the lawful treatment of persons with whole plant medicinal cannabis The Parliament of Queensland enacts— 1 Short title This Act may be cited as the Public Health (Medicinal Cannabis Affordability) Amendment Act 2017 . 2 Act amended This Act amends the Public Health (Medicinal Cannabis) Act 2016 . 3 Insertion of new s 214A Chapter 12, part 2— insert— 214A Minister must take steps to ensure whole plant medicinal cannabis is affordable (1) The Minister must take all necessary and reasonable steps to ensure the cost of the lawful treatment of a person (the patient) with whole plant medicinal cannabis is affordable for a person incurring the cost of the patient’s treatment. (2) Without limiting subsection (1), steps to ensure the affordability of the lawful treatment of a person with whole plant medicinal cannabis include negotiating with the Commonwealth to ensure either or both of the following—

(a) the applicable law of the Commonwealth regulating the importation of whole plant medicinal cannabis does not unnecessarily restrict the importation of whole plant medicinal cannabis from particular foreign manufacturers;

(b) the subsidising, by the Commonwealth or the State, of the cost of the lawful treatment of a person with whole plant medicinal cannabis imported from foreign manufacturers.

(3) In this section— whole plant medicinal cannabis means medicinal cannabis that contains all of the therapeutic compounds found in a plant of the genus Cannabis.