New AHPRA guidance warns that prescribers are issuing multiple medicinal cannabis scripts to individual patients so they can try the different types and decide “which one suits them”.

With hundreds of thousands of patients prescribed unapproved high-THC medicinal cannabis, regulators are increasingly worried, especially about prescribing based on brief telehealth consultations.

New guidance for doctors and nurse practitioners, published on Wednesday, gives examples of poor practice, including consultations lasting “a few seconds”.

It warns against “prescribing a range of products that allow the patient to test what they prefer”, telling prescribers, “You would not do that for an opioid or antihypertensive.”