The President of the Council of Trade Unions, Helen Kelly, has admitted using cannabis to help cope with the side effects of lung cancer.
Helen Kelly. Photo: Supplied
She told the TV3 programme The Nation that she had used the drug to help with pain relief, but that she didn't like having to access it illegally.
Ms Kelly is planning to write to Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne to ask for permission to use cannabis legally.
"I've worked with him, he knows I'm not a drug addict - not that that should matter, but that it's for health reasons.
"I've exhausted all of the normal medicines. I could get morphine, as much as I like, which is a horrible drug, but I would like access to cannabis oil, both because I'm interested in its curative effect, I think there's something in that ... but particularly as it's a mild pain relief."
Ms Kelly, who is stepping down as CTU president next week, said there were important drugs that would help her that she could not get through the public health system.
Mr Dunne said New Zealand still needed to wait and see what happened overseas. He said the government would not rush into changing its policy on medicinal cannabis.
Mike Nichols called for medicinal marijuana to be grown in NZ. Photo: AFP
Last year a retired Massey University scientist and plant breeder said both sick people and the economy would benefit if the government allowed medicinal marijuana to be grown and sold.
Mike Nichols said some New Zealanders were needlessly suffering because of the government's ban on growing marijuana for medicinal purposes.
He said the government's opposition to drugs blinded it to the economic and health benefits that medicinal marijuana presents.
"Everyone thinks about cannabis in terms of the drug and the fact that it's an intoxicating type of drug. But in fact it has a lot of other properties apart from the pain relief component."
He said CBD (cannabidiol) also appears to have useful characteristics for controlling problems associated with the central nervous system.
US, Australian states regulate for medical cannabis
Earlier this week the Australian state of Victoria moved to legalise medicinal cannabis in exceptional circumstances such as in cases of multiple sclerosis, HIV/Aids, epilepsy or severe chronic pain.
And in California, Governor Jerry Brown on Friday signed into law the state's first comprehensive regulations of medical marijuana.
California's package of three laws, viewed as a possible framework for the eventual legalisation of recreational marijuana, establish a Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation and regulate cultivation and dispensary licensing.
Mr Brown said the bills, which take effect in 2018, created a long-overdue regulatory framework for the production, transport and sale of medical marijuana.
The bills regulate cultivation and require state tax and agriculture officials to track its sale and the development of marijuana products.
The package was welcomed by advocates for medical marijuana, but opponents said the new laws would codify a business they saw as promoting potentially dangerous drug use.
Card-carrying medical marijuana patients line up in Los Angeles. Photo: AFP
- RNZ / Reuters