Above video: The medical cannabis debate.
Medical cannabis prescription approvals in Australia have increased eleven fold in a single year, according to the Therapeutic Goods Administration.
Since medical cannabis was legalised in 2016, more than 4000 applications for medical cannabis products have been approved - growing from 13 in the first year of legalisation to more than 2500 in last year.
More than 1400 prescriptions have already been approved in the first two months of this year.
This includes repeat scripts and does not reflect the number of patients using medicinal cannabis.
GP and medical cannabis advocate Teresa Towpick says a streamline in the approval process last year has seen a marked increase in prescriptions.
Before March 2018 she couldn’t get a script approved - now she has prescribed to more than 80 patients.
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“But my patients also have PTSD, depression, anxiety and insomnia and other medical problems, such as hypertension, high cholesterol, ischemic heart disease, diabetes.”
Prescription use grows despite insufficient clinical evidence
The Australian Medical Association says there is not enough evidence for the organisation to support the use of medical cannabis.
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He is urging doctors and patients to be cautious until there is peer-reviewed evidence of the benefits and risks.
The TGA have approved applications for using cannabis for treating conditions including, but not limited to:
- chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting
- refractory paediatric epilepsy
- palliative care indications
- cancer pain
- neuropathic pain
- spasticity from neurological conditions
- anorexia and wasting associated with chronic illness (such as cancer)
Dr Lim says there needs to be clinical trials to establish clinical guidelines for each condition.
“It does appear that studies show there might be a benefit for uncontrollable epilepsy. But for everything else we are still waiting for good evidence to come through,” he said.
Doctors unsure about how to help patients
Medical cannabis was legalised by the federal government in 2016, to allow people to grow and manufacture the drug.
A streamlining of the approval process last year has meant more people have had access to drug, according to doctors.
But a University of Sydney survey of more than 600 Australian GPs found less than a third felt they knew enough about medicinal cannabis to discuss it with their patients.
More than half surveyed said they did not know how to access the drug.
‘We need to be brave’
Dr Towpick says that despite the lack of evidence and knowledge, she’s seeing good results with her patients and is confident the drug is helping.
About 50 per cent of my patients managed to reduce or stop taking opioids. Cannabis really helps chronic, debilitating pain.
“A lot of doctors say there is not enough evidence, there's not enough randomised clinical trials.
“In general doctors tend to be conservative, which is a good thing. But sometimes we need to be a little bit courageous as well.”
