No matter who wins the state election, Victoria is heading into what was until recently a political no-go zone – legal access to medical marijuana.

No longer left to fringe parties or the Greens, the issue now has a form of bipartisan support from the major parties.

• Packer to stay out of Vic elections
• Where the major parties stand
• Change of Govt likely in Victoria
• Tex Perkins to run as an independent

It was the stories of Victorian families turning to cannabis oil and seeing improved quality of life for their seriously ill children that brought the issue into the political mainstream.

Liberal, Labor and even the Australian Sex Party are now in rough alignment on the issue.

Fiona Patten, an Australian Sex Party candidate in the Victorian election, said the major parties were adjusting to a shift in community attitudes in recent years.

“The climate is now completely different and, I think, what we’re seeing is a vast majority of people believe that medical marijuana should be available,” Ms Patten said.

“The debate now is looking at the model of how to do this.”

Ms Patten points to Canada where access is controlled by a patient’s doctor, growers are licensed, and the product is medical-grade “not grown in someone’s backyard”.

“The world is crying out for a new source of medical marijuana and Victoria is very well placed to supply that,” Ms Patten also said.

“We could be supplying Canada, the US and Europe with a strictly regulated medical crop.”

The Victorian Liberal Party supports making it legal to conduct clinical trials of medical marijuana, thereby creating an approved and supervised pathway for its medical use.

Families already using medical marijuana could enrol in these trials, where they would gain access to a medical-grade product.

“We’ve taken the view that we’ll work with other states in a sensible and pragmatic way to see trials of medical cannabis operate,” Health Minister David Davis said.

“We’ve also established an expert advisory committee which will help vet any research, or other requests, including requests for the use of medical cannabis.”

The Victorian government introduced a bill that would have enabled these clinical trials, but ran out of sitting days before it could become law.

Labor has pledged, should it win the election, to ask the Law Reform Commission to report on what changes would be required to legalise medical marijuana.

Health spokesman Gavin Jennings said the Therapeutic Goods Administration needed to be given oversight of the supply, and a system put in place to allow GPs to prescribe it and pharmacies to dispense it.

“Today, Victorian society is actually expecting government to enable this to occur and there is quite a body of support in the medical profession to do this,” Mr Jennings said.

“I was talking to a neurologist who treats patients with epilepsy … and he said the sooner that these laws can allow the regulation of medical cannabis the better, because he has seen the efficacy of it in a large number of patients.”

Mr Jennings also said he was open to local growing and manufacture of medical marijuana, if it could be done securely.

The party that forms government after the November 29 election is expected to take the next step.