Cannabis and hemp are known for their health benefits and since they have been removed from our diet, we have seen an explosion of diseases such as cancer, dementia and autoimmune conditions that were once relatively rare.
Reintroducing cannabis into our daily diet as a measure to prevent ill-health could reduce the long-term burden on the health budget.
- Legalisation will enable affordable access to safe cannabis therapeutics via home-grow and licensed dispensaries. A licensed dispensary model would enable small and medium sized licensed growers to enter the market.
- Introduce public health education and awareness programs about the preventative benefits of cannabis and hemp as a plant-based diet and medicine.
- Introduce cannabis clinics attached to dispensaries with trained clinicians advising customers on ‘strains’ and products when cannabis is recommended by a doctor to treat their condition.
- Offer workshops for patients about growing cannabis for food and medicine, educating them on all aspects of safely making their own medicine, including information on production, dosing and administration routes.
- Introduction of supervised and recorded N1 trials that would speed up the evidenced based data available, through monitoring and evaluating cannabis’ effectiveness in treating different conditions.
- Patient’s licences would ensure cheaper rates to medical users on a doctor’s recommendation.
- For patients who prefer the established pharmaceutical model, a more patient-friendly approach regarding access to and affordability of cannabis products is needed. This could include the establishment of a state based compassionate access scheme subsidising corporate medicine, as proposed by the Barriers to Medical Cannabis Inquiry in March 2020.
- State revenues from cannabis sales can be directed to improving the public health system through better nurse to patient ratios and increased funding for specialised mental health on-the-job training for nurses in mental health specific care facilities.
- Ensure doctors working in public hospitals are free from harassment by bureaucracy if they to choose to prescribe cannabis to in or out-patients in a public hospital.
- Products would be dispensed and subsidised through hospital pharmacies.
- As recommended by the Federal Inquiry into Barriers to Medical Cannabis – targeted education and public awareness campaigns need to be developed and implemented to reduce the stigma around medicinal cannabis within the community.