ABC reported that man died on the side of Anzac highway in Adelaide, not very far from a hospital that could have saved his life, but for waiting 40 minutes for an ambulance to arrive.
The reason everyone will point to is the pandemic and our health resources being stretched to the point of breaking.
I'd direct people to something else, I point them to the 5251 people who received cannabis expiation notices (CENs) in 2020-21.
At what point does a cost benefit analysis kick in?
How many people need to die on the side of the road in sight of a hospital before resources are redirected from arresting patients to saving them?
This morning there was talk on the radio to make firefighters answer the emergency calls that the ambulances can't.
Nobody asked the same question about the Police (who are also trained and qualified to offer the exact same level of first aid as a fireman) being asked to respond to emergency first aid calls..
Why is that exactly, especially when it seems patently clear that on 5251 separate occasions in the financial year of 2020-21, the opportunity certainly existed, but was spent instead on fining people for cannabis?
In 2020, the Australian Senate held an Inquiry into the barriers to patient access to medical cannabis in Australia.
One of the recommendations provided States with a suggested mechanism for improving access (Rec. 20), which coincidentally would also provide a way to free up many of those 5251 occassions when Police wasted time investigating and subsequently fined patients.
A homegrow amnesty.
5.107 The committee recommends that the Australian Government, through COAG, encourage a review of state and territory criminal legislation in relation to:
amnesties for the possession and/or cultivation of cannabis for genuine self-medication purposes; and
current drug driving laws and their implications for patients with legal medicinal cannabis prescriptions.