THE 1963 Taree High School Year book sees Barry Lambert sitting front and centre as captain of the school’s First XI cricket team.
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Five decades on Mr Lambert is again front and centre in a leadership role in the wake of the decision to donate $33.7 million to Sydney University to fund scientific research into the medical application of cannabis.
Mr Lambert’s wife, Joy (nee Cole) also attended Taree High School and together they chose to make the donation after their granddaughter, Katelyn Lambert found relief from epileptic seizures through cannabis-based medicine.
The donation is the largest in the university’s history, is called the Lambert Initiative and will bring together three of the university’s leading researchers, who argue cannabis is a potential treatment for obesity, schizophrenia and drug addiction.
The $33.7 million donation will come from a personal fortune of $372 million according to the BRW Rich 200 List 2015. Mr Lambert holds position 156 and the family fortune stems from a career in financial services that began when he started working for the Commonwealth Bank in Taree when he was 17-years-old.
According to the BRW Rich 200 List 2015 Mr Lambert “founded Count Financial in 1980, operating at first as an after-hours tax services firm. In later years, the firm was transformed into a financial planning group with a large independent network of planners around the country. The group was sold to the Commonwealth Bank for $373 million in 2011. Mr Lambert also owns properties in Sydney and on the NSW northern coast and in the state’s rural areas.”
Premier Mike Baird commended Mr and Mrs Lambert for their decision in The Sydney Morning Herald saying, “This is something that is going to reverberate around the world. We are now leading this country and, in many respects, the world.”
Psychopharmacologist Iain McGregor said the centre’s research would focus on 10 key “cannabinoid” compounds found in marijuana and their potential use to treat a range of illnesses, including childhood epilepsy.
“Only one, THC, is psychoactive,” Professor McGregor said.
“This gift will allow us to explore one of the most exciting questions in modern medicine.
“The new science of cannabinoids has incredible potential for relief of human suffering ... and to repair damaged bodies and brains.”
Trails are expected to begin next year.
If successful, they could be a prelude to the drug’s eventual decriminalisation for medical use.
