{"id":7700,"date":"2017-09-06T20:29:09","date_gmt":"2017-09-06T20:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.420magazine.com\/?p=6547"},"modified":"2017-09-06T20:29:09","modified_gmt":"2017-09-06T20:29:09","slug":"australia-medicinal-cannabis-about-to-get-green-light-in-tasmania-who-will-qualify","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/australia-medicinal-cannabis-about-to-get-green-light-in-tasmania-who-will-qualify\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia: Medicinal Cannabis About To Get Green Light In Tasmania \u2013 Who Will Qualify"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/australia-medicinal-cannabis-about-to-get-green-light-in-tasmania-who-will-qualify\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><p>Tasmanians will be able to apply to access medicinal cannabis from Friday, but doctors and advocates have concerns about how the scheme will work.<\/p>\n<p>East Tamar mother Lyn Cleaver uses medicinal cannabis to treat her 26-year-old son Jeremy&#8217;s seizures.<\/p>\n<p>She has applied to access Tasmania&#8217;s Controlled Access Scheme but there are no guarantees and no answers about when the medication will be available.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s first the medication that we&#8217;ve given Jeremy that comes side-effect free, which is remarkable.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Health Minister Michael Ferguson said the controlled-access scheme is on time, as promised.<\/p>\n<p>But he could not say exactly how long it will take patients to access the drug.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That will have to rely upon the comprehensive clinical work, between their patient and specialist.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Nicole Cowles from Hobart won&#8217;t be taking part in the scheme.<\/p>\n<p>Ms Cowles has been treating her daughter Alice&#8217;s seizures with medicinal cannabis for four years.<\/p>\n<p>She believes the scheme will end up being too restrictive, and the waiting lists will blow out.<\/p>\n<p>Doctors said in reality, prescribing medicinal cannabis will be restricted to two rare forms of childhood epilepsy.<\/p>\n<p>They&#8217;re worried they&#8217;ll be left to deal with angry patients, for whom the scheme won&#8217;t deliver.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Doctors feel overwhelmed because the evidence really is very limited, when it comes to medicinal cannabis,&#8221; Dr Bastian Seidel said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We really believe it is not medicinal cannabis, it has now become political cannabis, where politicians are now feeling they have to make medicinal cannabis legal, no matter what.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Mr Ferguson said unlike other states Tasmania&#8217;s access scheme does not restrict access to any particular condition.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As I have made it clear, the pathway is not disease-specific, however we have placed the resource anticipating extra referrals pediatric epilepsy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Dr Seidel is also concerned the scheme is fragmented.<\/p>\n<p>GPs are required to refer patients to a specialist, who then applies to the secretary of the Health Department for a decision.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s not going to be good enough just to see a GP, to ask for a referral to be seen by a hospital specialist, never to be seen by a GP again, only to end up in the hospital system,&#8221; Dr Seidel said.<\/p>\n<p>Dr Seidel said medicinal cannabis legislation is different in each state.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is literally all over the place. And we&#8217;ve been calling on the federal government and the state governments to actually work together to have a united framework.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Stuart Day, President of the Australian Medical Association in Tasmania, supports the new scheme.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There is some evidence in certain conditions that it may improve the care for patients,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Ferguson said no one would be excluded from the process. The Tasmanian Government said medicinal cannabis will be imported from overseas.<\/p>\n<p>It will be subsidized by the State Government, meaning end users will pay about $40 a month.<\/p>\n<p><img src=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/australia-medicinal-cannabis-about-to-get-green-light-in-tasmania-who-will-qualify.png\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>News Moderator: Ron Strider <a href=\"http:\/\/www.420magazine.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">420 MAGAZINE \u00ae<\/a><br \/>\nFull Article: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2017-08-31\/medicinal-cannabis-in-tasmania-imminent-but-concerns-linger\/8857448\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Medicinal cannabis about to get green light in Tasmania, but concerns linger over who will qualify &#8211; ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)<\/a><br \/>\nAuthor: Rhiana Whitson<br \/>\nContact: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/contact\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Contact Us &#8211; ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)<\/a><br \/>\nPhoto Credit: Laura Beavis<br \/>\nWebsite: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tasmanians will be able to apply to access medicinal cannabis from Friday, but doctors and advocates have concerns about how&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.420magazine.com\/2017\/09\/australia-medicinal-cannabis-get-green-light-tasmania-will-qualify\/\" class=\"read-more\">[Read More]<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1616,9,1,3],"tags":[4184],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7700"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7700\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}