Regulators fear a medicinal cannabis Wild West is breaking out
Almost 200 health practitioners have been subject to complaints about cannabis prescribing or dispensing.
‘Spiralling’ use of medicinal cannabis has prompted a rare joint meeting of Australian regulators, including AHPRA and the TGA, to tackle inappropriate cannabis prescribing.
Doctors have prescribed cannabis to more than one million patients as of January 2024, AHPRA said, with the number of prescribers jumping to more than 5700.
Between them, AHPRA and the Office of the Health Ombudsman in Queensland have received 267 complaints about prescribing or dispensing of medicinal cannabis since July 2019.
The complaints — relating to 199 health practitioners — mostly referred to fees charged, access to medications or patients being prescribed “lower doses than they have requested”.
