Medical practitioners are being called on to ensure patients understand they risk criminal charges if they do not follow the regulations governing how medicinal cannabis must be transported and stored.
The warning follows the case of Hannah Turner, who appeared before the Noosa Magistrates Court on drug-related charges earlier this year despite holding a valid prescription for her medication.
Turner was hit with a dangerous drug possession charge after police stopped her while she was walking her dog at a nature reserve in June.
Court documents show officers had been called to the area following complaints about people smoking drugs nearby. Turner voluntarily told them she had cannabis in her car, explaining she had removed a small amount from its labelled container and placed it in a clip-sealed bag, with the original container also present in the vehicle.
Because the cannabis was not in the container it was dispensed in, she was charged with possession of a dangerous drug. She pleaded guilty and received a A$300 good behaviour bond with no conviction recorded.
Turner maintained she had never been informed the medicine needed to remain in its original packaging, and called for patients to receive clearer guidance on the rules around carrying their prescription.
"It was the tiniest little bit that was left – less than a gram – and they give you these 10-gram canisters that are quite large, so if I have a tiny bit left, I'll put it in a little bag," she said.
"I don't want someone to be put in that situation who doesn't have the resources like I do, who can't call their dad and get a good lawyer, who may potentially have epilepsy or Parkinson's disease and have their medication taken away from them.
"People who are doing the right thing shouldn't be treated like criminals and there just needs to be more clarity around the law as well, because how are you supposed to do the right thing if you don't even know something as simple as that is breaking the law?"
Turner was prescribed the drug for PTSD, anxiety and insomnia and had no knowledge that storing it outside its original packaging constituted an offence.
"I just was not aware because I was never told that by my doctor," she added. "I was never told any information on how to store it."
Clinical researcher Dr Janet Schloss, from Southern Cross University's Faculty of Health, said she agreed that healthcare practitioners were failing to adequately educate patients on how to handle their medication.
She noted that the storage requirements effectively oblige patients — particularly those managing chronic pain — to carry large quantities of medicinal cannabis with them, which is not always feasible.
"If it's a big container, you don't want to be carrying that around all the time," she said. "Number one, it's quite bulky. Number two, it's a lot of money that you're carrying around. There's a big risk assessment that needs to occur."
Queensland Health, in a written statement, said the rules were in place to ensure "ongoing treatment is monitored by an authorised doctor and that the quality and consistency of the prescribed product meets national standards".
"It also ensures the patient can continue using the prescribed treatment if they are admitted to hospital for any reason.
"Like any lawfully prescribed and dispensed medicine, medicinal cannabis will have a label which confirms the name of the prescribing doctor and where the medicine was dispensed."
At the sentencing hearing, magistrate Matthew McLaughlin acknowledged the cannabis had been legally obtained and described Turner's situation as "an interesting conundrum".
