Medicinal Cannabis in Australia Update, June 2022
Medicinal Cannabis in Australia Update, June 2022
According to the Australian Journal of General Practice, published by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, more than 130,000 medicinal cannabis approvals have been issued in Australia to date, mostly by general practitioners, with approximately 65% of these to treat chronic non-cancer pain. Despite robust supportive data from animal models, current clinical trial evidence for THC and CBD efficacy in chronic pain is incomplete. In their prescribing decisions, doctors must balance patient demand and curiosity with caution regarding potential risks and limited efficacy (Source: https://www1.racgp.org.au/ajgp/2021/october/medicinal-cannabis)
Australian Health Journal met with 3 speakers at the recent @arcsaustralia ARCS22 Conference providing an update on medicinal cannabis. The discussion with the speakers now centres on affordability and access.
– Dr Teresa Nicoletti is a Partner and the National Head of Health and Life Science at Mills Oakley lawyers. She is a pre-eminent health and life sciences practitioner who has more than 25 years’ experience in the therapeutic goods industry in Australia. She is also widely regarded as Australia’s leading lawyer in the regulation of medicinal cannabis and hemp. Teresa’s particular expertise is in the regulatory space and in commercial contracts. She particularly specialises in advising companies on statutory and regulatory interpretation, supply chain management, risk management, and corporate structure and governance. She is also an experienced negotiator and regularly liaises with federal and state/territory regulatory authorities and government administrators, including the Therapeutic Goods Administration, Office of Drug Control and federal and state/territory health departments. In addition to her role at Mills Oakley, Teresa is a part-time senior member of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, a position which she has held since August 2006. This has equipped her with extensive knowledge of administrative law and a unique understanding of administrative decision making. Source: https://arcs.eventsair.com/2022-arcs-annual-conference/speakers.
– Professor Iain McGregor is Professor of Psychopharmacology and Academic Director of the Lambert Initiative for Cannabinoid Therapeutics in the Brain and Mind Centre at the University of Sydney, Australia. Iain’s research is focused on the discovery and development of new medications for the treatment of disease and involves the full pipeline from chemistry, to cellular and animal models, to clinical trials. The discoveries of his team around the use of oxytocin-like molecules to treat addiction and social withdrawal led to the successful spinoff company Kinoxis Therapeutics. Iain has more than 300 peer-reviewed publications and multiple patents. The Lambert Initiative for Cannabinoid Therapeutics which was formed in 2015 with a gift of unprecedented generosity from the Lambert family to the University of Sydney. The Lambert Initiative, under Iain’s leadership, conducts world-leading research into the therapeutic benefits of cannabinoids in epilepsy, pain, cancer, addictions and mental health conditions. It has also developed a large library of proprietary small molecules. Recently Iain and his team have diversified into psychedelic research and are currently developing plans for a research program around psychedelic drug discovery including a recently-funded clinical trial of psilocybin in the treatment of eating disorders. Source: https://arcs.eventsair.com/2022-arcs-annual-conference/speakers.
– Robert Stringer is a pharmacist with more than 25 years of experience in the Australian and New Zealand pharmaceutical industry. Robert’s career experience extends to establishing a consultancy business and holding leadership and management roles in Regulatory Affairs, Clinical Research, Product Sourcing and Development and Strategic Planning. Robert is an active supporter of the industry. His long engagement with professional associations includes the provision of various presentations and training programs at ARCS and the Regulatory Affairs Professionals Association (RAPS). Robert is a Senior Director and Head of Regulatory Affairs, PharmaLex Source: https://arcs.eventsair.com/2022-arcs-annual-conference/speakers
It should be upto the individual in negotiation with the prescriber whether or not the mediation works for certain people, not speculation from people with unclear intentions in the field.
Probably one crucial thing that is needed, in terms of helping bridge this gap between data available from patients and their prescribers, particularly AP GPs that are at odds with colleagues, is to make available samples to patients, aligned and based on what they are currently rotating as treatments. A sample pack of say six flowers to a patient gives their prescribers far more data faster on varieties that are available which could treat an individual better.
I want to build a good rotation of flower I can use for my range of issues but I’m restricted by TGA points of 2g a day and four flowers. This restricts me to only those strains I’ve had prescribed and restricts me in providing relevant data to my doctor (who is my GP and AP)
That doctor is also restricted to how much they can order in.
I think it is really important also that we understand a lot of traditional ‘recreational’ users were in fact treating mental and confidence issues (as I have) and we tend to play this down in favour of only pain or other physical conditions (which I also treat). I have data which suggests certain strains, that accelerate heart rate, help with arterial issues I have (blockage causing claudication in my leg). All this kind of data is valuable. My doctor is getting it but I am certain there’s much more data out there that could be gathered by wide range sampling.
Just completely decriminalise it.
It’s disappointing that it has to benefit law makers before they recognise the gift that this is. You can talk science all day long , cannabis is and has been a healing plant for centuries
Oils never take 1-2 hours – that is ingestible such as capsules. Oils take 15-30 mins. RCTs the gold standard for new drugs do not work for whole plant cannabis products. WHY? there are 400 plus trace compounds that can confuse the data. So yes we need to drill down on the specific compounds but RWE is crucial for this plant. Drug companies won’t make the investment if they can not patent a drug and it would be extremely expensive to complete RCTs. The weakest link in all this is doctors who have been indoctrinated or conservative to protect their reputations and a drug framework designed for single molecule pharmaceuticals. The fact that the Faculty Of Pain Medicine is advising this way when these products are far safer and improve the benefits without the severe risks of pharmaceuticals is absolutely shocking. Even both the two approved drugs are CBD isolate or CBD:THC isolate. The epilepsy drug has been found to reduce seizure frequency less than whole plants, need far higher doses so cost prohibitive, mix more poorly with other meds at high doses. This drug also includes sucrolose (sugar sweetener) and ethanol which are both negative compounds.
Pathetic old phoneys who still think it’s a bad and street drug make me so mad! Medical cannabis has changed my life
We all need to get together and promote the benefits of medical cannabis cuz who else will?
Well said more smiles guys, youre doing a great thing.
And thank you
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if u need weed, cart, edible. ..Dey are very reliable..
I’ve found that most ( not all) people receiving medical marijuana are chronic long-term druggies who suddenly get diseases and mental conditions. A massive amount of medical marijuana is resold on the streets. It’s not regulated properly. I know of many people receiving this and every single one of them has been a drug addict for years. It’s like giving free heroin and ice to addicts so they can make a big orofit
Metastatic (stage 4) breast cancer (hr+) "thriver" here. (I’m living with it.) I keep hearing about *RSO* (Rick Simpson Oil), which is a super-concentrated medical marijuana product. The word around the cancer clinic patients is that this stuff *"shrinks breast cancer cells."* I live in WI where it’s completely illegal, even for medical, but yet the same thing repeats from several patients saying, "try this stuff." Doesn’t this at least warrant some kind of *RESEARCH?*
By "research" I mean, like, *"NOW, NOW, NOW!"*
TREAT CANNABIS LIKE TOMATOES …. SIMPLE
Plenty of juicy green land to grow in Australia. We want more
I disagree entirely with the notion that cannabis should be legalised as a sort of cigarette type of drug, what we should be doing as a society is having a massive debate about the so called Net Zero (death sentence) policies, this is more detrimental to the livelihoods for all Australians. Don’t be swayed by the media nonsense, lets go back to common sense governance.
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if u need weed, cart, edible. ..Dey are very reliable..
yep price is crazy! roughly 600-700 a month for myself. but i wont be looking back! the products i found for myself are perfect for me to get day by day. lets just decriminalize it already
COMMON SENSE , COMPASSION , CLEAR FACT BASED RESEARCH
Give me one of each I will trial any Canibus product
If people could only grow freely in there own home for personal use, people wouldn’t have to spend all their centrelink money on blackmarket bud.
This is criminal we don’t need space goof bud from Mars what we need is for cannabis to know longer be a cost for us
Governments lack the competence to pass any law. HURRY IT UP
Won’t think over job for people
Pharmaceutical companies are so corrupt. This is bull shit. I stopped paying $360 a bottle and smoke high quality Green. I’ve given up all the toxic DRUGS and resorted to natural Cannabis.
The government doesn’t care about people in pain. We can all grow this plant at home without you guys profiting off our miss fortune. So far all you have done is trick everyone who already uses it. To pay a doctor to use it. An then provide us products that have been In my opinion. Tampered with I call it nice looking shit weed.
Good people doing thier best.
Legalise for all states and make it rec to think about all the jobs it will open up for small bussiness owners farmers, bud tenders ect. Its 2022 come Australia come on
IF YOU ARE NOT IN THE FINANCIAL MARKET SPACE RIGHT NOW, YOU ARE MAKING A HUGE MISTAKE. I UNDERSTAND THAT IT COULD BE DUE TO IGNORANCE, BUT IF YOU WANT TO MAKE YOUR MONEY WORK FOR YOU… PREVENT INFLATION
Great video thankyou for your effort!
I pay over $150 a week for my medicine and i don’t get medicated to the level i need to be
At 19 I went to my mate to buy a pound he had none but assured me his mate would so I went with him to a known affiliate of Bandidos… Should I risk my wellbeing over a plant? These are the same people that sell heroin? My younger brothers stomach was pumped at 13… But don’t let him smoke a joint… Seriously Australia would be better off economically and criminally legalising marijuana
Once it’s on the PBS scheme I’ll stop smoking illegal weed and use cbd oil etc. Have seen a Doctor in the past my first appointment I walked out $570 lighter. $360 for a 40ml bottle of CBD oil.