This is a commonsense approach and a great step forward for those campaigning to make medical marijuana legal and available to people needing better quality of life.

We must hope these trials reflect the amazing results reported by families using medical cannabis to control often life-threatening conditions in loved ones.

The state government is also considering removing a ban on the growing of marijuana for medical purposes. Such a move can't come quick enough.

There has been much written this week about concerns surrounding the quality of some medical cannabis being sold to desperate families.

Clearly, the only way to overcome such unscrupulous practices is to legalise and regulate the medical cannabis industry.

Such a move will provide a safe and legal means for families to obtain quality medical marijuana and make life extremely tough for those trying to rort the system.

While Thursday's developments were heartening, as the O'Connell family of Mia Mia quite rightly points out, there is little time to waste in implementing these changes.