United in Compassion co-founder Lucy Haslam says this week's ABC 7.30 Report featuring allegations of irresponsible prescribing should be a wake-up call for the medicinal cannabis industry – and the government.
A great many people working in the medicinal cannabis sector would have watched Monday night's ABC's 7.30 Report, which brought profit-driven, irresponsible prescribing practices into sharp public focus.
Whether it is unethical prescribers putting patient welfare at risk or companies using telehealth to push products onto vulnerable people, these behaviours have now been laid bare before the broader Australian public. That exposure is necessary, even if it has dealt a blow to the very thing I spent so long fighting to establish.
That is a somewhat bitter pill to swallow.
The medicinal cannabis sector is in a troubling state, with serious problems that demand attention. At the same time, the genuine benefits it delivers to patients deserve to be part of any honest conversation.
The 7.30 report came as no shock to those who have watched this sector closely. It confirmed what many of us have long been worried about — the sheer volume of prescriptions, including Category 5 products, being issued recklessly by bad actors. A number of us have raised these concerns with government authorities and organisations such as AHPRA on multiple occasions.
What the report stopped short of was calling for government action to address these problems and protect both Australian patients and a sector that provides genuine relief to many people. Any serious discussion going forward must include that dimension.
As someone who has advocated for medicinal cannabis for years, it is painful to concede that parts of the sector are failing patients. Building credibility for this medicine has always been difficult given its history with recreational use and the war on drugs.
Those who are now acting irresponsibly are dragging the sector's reputation through the mud and making it harder to achieve the broad acceptance that medicinal cannabis deserves.
The report leaned heavily into the negatives and the links to recreational use, largely ignoring the real value this medicine provides to patients living with serious and debilitating conditions — patients who receive their care from knowledgeable, conscientious medical professionals seeking safer, standardised options as alternatives to illicit products and certain other widely accepted pharmaceuticals.
Back in 2016, the previous government chose to administer medicinal cannabis through the existing TGA Special Access and Authorised Prescriber Schemes rather than creating a standalone regulator, and that decision has contributed directly to the situation the report described.
“Those currently engaging in irresponsible behaviour are… hindering progress towards the wide acceptance of the medicine.”
lucy haslam
Telehealth has been seized upon by entrepreneurs who put profit ahead of patient care, and the problem is compounded by the absence of a public awareness campaign — something a Senate Inquiry recommended back in 2019. The combination has created the perfect storm.
The TGA has issued fines, mostly for advertising breaches, but these penalties are treated as little more than an operating expense, and patients continue to be misled and exploited.
AHPRA has appropriately formed a task force to discipline and, where necessary, deregister individual health professionals, but it has no authority over the owners and operators of telehealth companies. These measures are clearly not enough.
Unchecked operators carry on by swapping out departing prescribers with the next doctor or nurse practitioner willing — or naïve enough — to put their registration on the line.
The telehealth model and the legislation that enables it present serious problems. Both sides of government must accept responsibility and work together to fix them. Another Senate Inquiry is warranted, but it will achieve nothing if recommendations are not implemented.
The medicinal cannabis sector delivers real benefits to genuine patients and contributes meaningfully to the Australian economy. If the system is being abused and causing harm, it must be reformed — without losing sight of what it was always meant to be about: compassion and the relief of suffering.
- Read more: 'Bad actors must not be allowed to overshadow our good work' – industry reacts to latest salvo
