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How patients can access medicinal cannabis in Australia
Despite the Australian government approving the use of cannabis for medical purposes close to three years ago, there is still some red tape in the way of Australians getting access to the drug.
A lot of the information out there can be vague and confusing and it can seem a little overwhelming.
You have a medical condition, or maybe your child is sick, and you just want to obtain a more natural but clinically proven treatment without turning into a criminal for it.
Australian medicinal cannabis ancillary services provider Cannvalate’s chief executive officer Dr Sud Agarwal gave Small Caps the lowdown on exactly how access works in Australia.
Where can you get medical cannabis in Australia?
In October 2016, the Narcotic Drugs Amendment Act 2016 came into effect in Australia, allowing doctors to legally prescribe medicinal cannabis to patients with specific medical conditions through the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA)’s Special Access Scheme.
Dr Agarwal said since legalisation occurred, there has been an increased “softening of the regulations to prove eligibility for medical use”.
“It’s federally open – it’s the same essentially everywhere [in Australia],” he said.
“Some people say there’s a patient access problem but it’s not really a government problem anymore; it’s more a function of cost or efficiencies of the system,” Dr Agarwal added.
Getting a prescription
As you are probably aware, medicinal cannabis is not an over-the-counter medication and you need a very restricted prescription for it.
However, Dr Agarwal said the “biggest myth” about the authorised prescriber scheme is that doctors need to be preapproved by the TGA to prescribe medicinal cannabis to patients.
“Any doctor can prescribe it now – GP or specialist,” he said.
“The vast majority of prescriptions, probably 98%, are not prescribed by authorised prescribers. It’s probably the biggest misconception. They’re prescribed by regular doctors under the Special Access Scheme,” Dr Agarwal explained.
Dr Sud Agarwal is an internationally recognised key opinion leader in the clinical use of cannabinoid medicines.
Still, it’s not as simple as popping to your GP and being issued a script – you need to have your medical condition verified as being appropriate for the treatment.
“The doctor makes an application to the TGA to certify that it’s a condition that would be an appropriate use of cannabis and that the product the doctor selected is an appropriate one too,” Dr Agarwal said.
“Usually there needs to be some form of clinical justification, which is usually done by attaching some form of medical literature evidence. Once you’ve got that, within very short period of time, the TGA will confirm: yes, it’s approved, or no, we need further information.”
Dr Agarwal said the process is “usually very quick now”.
“It used to take weeks or months – now it’s often the same day or next day approved,” he said.
According to the TGA, 2893 Special Access Scheme Category B applications were approved in August 2019. This is almost 12 times more than the 229 approvals recorded in August 2018.
Who can be prescribed medical cannabis?
The medical conditions that cannabis can be prescribed for is quite extensive – but you can’t use it to treat the common cold.
Clinical trials and medical research has shown medicinal cannabis can assist in the treatment of symptoms for conditions including but not limited to: chronic pain syndrome; neurological conditions such as epilepsy; multiple sclerosis and motor neuron diseases; inflammatory bowel diseases, Crohns disease and ulcerative colitis; chronic cancer pain and malaise; chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting; arthritis; and dementia.
Dr Agarwal said chronic pain is the most common reason medicinal cannabis is prescribed, followed by neurological illnesses and inflammatory diseases.
“Then, a lot of people are in between where they have a primary disease that has led to prolonged or chronic pain and they’re now taking it for that condition, in conjunction with their chronic pain medication,” he added.
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