Three subgroups of the Australian Medicinal Cannabis Association (AMCA) are consolidating into a single body, bringing together healthcare practitioners from across the medical cannabis field under one unified organisation.
Cannabis Clinicians Australia (CCA), the Australian Cannabis Nurses Association (ACNA) and the Australian Cannabis Pharmacists Association (ACPA) will all operate under the CCA banner going forward.
Dr David Gunn will lead the combined organisation.
Beyond fostering greater collaboration, the consolidation is expected to cut duplication and ease the administrative burden that came with running three separate subgroups, AMCA said. Operating independently had also resulted in missed opportunities.
Dr Gunn said: "Each subgroup, whether pharmacists, physicians or nurses, has brought its own unique strengths and insights to the table. Bringing them together will create a more powerful, collaborative and responsive clinical body and I know this will further our shared mission to improve and advance the use of medicinal cannabis in Australia.
"We want to ensure that future decisions are shaped by the best available medical and scientific evidence for the benefit of patients, clinicians and Australians as a whole."
Nurse Simone O'Brien, speaking on behalf of ACNA, said working together will create "greater opportunities for education and inter-professional learning and mentoring".
"We are better and stronger together," she said.
Pharmacist Jen Ravenswood said ACPA had always been oriented toward advancing the medicinal cannabis sector broadly, rather than solely advocating for pharmacists' interests.
"This merger is not a departure from that, it is the next natural step," she said. "By coming together with our peers in medicine and nursing, we are breaking down silos and reinforcing what has always been true – that high-quality, patient-centred care is collaborative by nature.
"It strengthens our collective ability to advocate, educate and develop standards that are informed by interdisciplinary insights and grounded in patient needs."
O'Brien, Ravenswood and Gunn, as chairman, will sit on a steering committee for the CCA along with Professor Nick Lintzeris, Louise McLean, Deb Ranson and Justin Sinclair.
CCA was established by AMCA in late 2020, originally operating as the Society of Cannabis Clinicians Australian Chapter. AMCA subsequently launched ACNA in February 2023, followed by ACPA in October 2023.
