Australian Story

Doing It for Dan (20x37)

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Lucy Haslam is a woman in a hurry. Since losing her son Daniel in February this year to cancer, the Tamworth resident has stepped up her campaign to legalise medicinal cannabis. Widely credited as the driving force behind a raft of state and federal initiatives aimed at legalising the drug, Lucy Haslam is concerned by delays in the political process and is striking out on her own. She has assembled a team which recently applied to the NSW Government for an exemption which will allow them to grow medicinal cannabis for research and development purposes in Tamworth. Her commitment is absolute. She and her husband Lou, a former drug squad officer, have put their business on the market to help achieve their goal. It is a deeply personal crusade. Lucy Haslam’s son Daniel was diagnosed at the age of 20 with stage 4 bowel cancer and only found relief from his nausea after ingesting medicinal cannabis. Forced to break the law in order to source the cannabis, Lucy and Daniel went public last year calling on politicians to follow the example of other countries around the world. A face to face meeting between NSW Premier Mike Baird and the Haslams was a turning point in their campaign. "It was very clear listening to the story I wanted to do something. They’ve turned something that politicians and governments were very coy about and didn’t want to discuss into a raging national debate." - NSW Premier Mike Baird.