Eighteen months ago General Purpose Standing Committee No. 4 was formed to investigate the merits behind medicinal cannabis for those with a terminal illness.

It was made up of two Legislative Council members of the National Party, which included committee chair Sarah Mitchell, two members of the Labour Party and one member from the Liberal Party, the Greens and the Shooters and Fishers Party.

Ms Mitchell and fellow National Party representative Trevor Khan attended the August meeting of the Southern Highlands Branch of the National Party to engage in discussion on the topic with local members.

In May 2013 the committee drafted a report for State Parliament with a series of unanimous recommendations that included an amendment to The Drug Misuse and Trafficking Act 1985.

The amendment would add a complete defense to the medical use and possession of cannabis by patients with terminal illness.

However, the government took up the first recommendation in the report to put pressure on the federal government to conduct more clinical trials.

The report came after two days of hearings where the committee heard from a range of stakeholders including the police drug squat, health and medical professionals and advocacy groups including Cancer Voices.

Mr Khan said in the main, they received little opposition.

"There is overwhelming evidence that supports those who are terminally ill using cannabis for appetite stimulation," he said.

"There are a lot of cases where traditional treatments don't help with nausea and other symptoms."

Mr Khan said the committee was looking at cannabis being available to a limited class of people.

"We recognise there are issues with long-term cannabis use and the current status in medical knowledge is that the risks outweigh the benefits," he said.

"When someone is at the end stage of their life that's (long-term risk) not a relevant criteria."

Ms Mitchell said there were a lot of patients using cannabis behind closed doors because they didn't want to break the law.

"We wanted decriminalisation for people who are terminally ill so they don't have the fear of prosecution," she said.

Sutton Forest resident and National Party Legislative Council member Niall Blair said it was a relevant issue in regional areas because of limited access to oncology services.

"If you took the legal risks aside, the medical community would be saying a lot about benefits," he said.