Submitted 1 day ago by HalfEarthMedic@slrpnk.net to australia@aussie.zone
The whole article is worth reading but this caught my eye.
The Australian Medicinal Cannabis Association (AMCA) said that without suspected adverse events being published and investigated it was hard to draw conclusions about the safety of medicinal cannabis products.
If the only organisation representing cannabis prescribers is unwilling to comment on safety what does that say about the state of the industry?
600 sounds like a lot…
The ABC can reveal there were 615 reports made to the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) involving unregistered medicinal cannabis products between July 1, 2022 and June 1, 2025.
600 over 3 years sounds like not as much…
“If we look at the data, which we have been provided by the Pennington Institute, it’s probably around 13 million units sold in that period.”
Bu 600 out of 13,000,000 is…
Well, that’s a 0.0046% percent chance of something happening.
And that should e placed n why people who know what they’re talking about aren’t freaking out.
Do you think 13million individuals have cannabis prescriptions? Do you tink 100% of adverse events are reported? Do you think psychiatrists, emergency doctors and GPs who are reporting concerning rise in adverse events are lying?
Do you think you’re not simply looking to confirm your pre-set beliefs?
Do you think 13million individuals have cannabis prescriptions?
…
You think every single person only used one dose in three years?
You literally have no idea what you’re talking about here.
If you’re nicer, people might help you understand
For perspective, according to drugs.com:
_The chance of having a drug side effect generally falls in these ranges:
In my experience with people who have been prescribed cannabis according to this metric common side effects are acute intoxication and worsening of existing mental health issues. Uncommon side effects are diarrhoea, nausea/vomiting, abdominal pain. Rare is psychosis, I’ve seen it once in maybe 200 patients but it’s probably not 0.5%.
We really need to define the risks if we’re going to prescribe cannabis at these volumes. Hence the call for TGA to investigate.
If the only organisation representing cannabis prescribers is unwilling to comment on safety what does that say about the state of the industry?
I’m not sure if I’m misreading your intent here? The AMCA is literally saying “If you don’t give us actual proof and studies we can’t validate or disprove them”. It’s a very different thing to “unwilling to comment on safety”
I disagree, this wording from a professional organisation is concerning. The usual standard of evidence for medication is that the companies or organisations promoting provide proof of safety.
For example ANZCA (specifically the Faculty of Pain Medicine) state
There’s a lack of definitive evidence showing long-term opioid effectiveness for CNCP, and conversely, substantial evidence of potential harm. As a result, opioids should only be considered in exceptional circumstances—for example, when other treatments have failed and the pain is demonstrably responsive to opioids.
With regards to psychotropic med the RANZCP say
Medications should be part of a comprehensive care plan that emphasizes low doses, minimal number of agents, and the shortest effective duration. Explanation of risks, benefits, and off-label use must be delivered to both young patients and their guardians. Prudence and caution are essential, though when properly prescribed, these medications can significantly improve quality of life for youth with serious psychiatric conditions.
AMCA regarding the safety of cannabis say
¯_(ツ)_/¯
OP is apparently shocked that something that happens 0.0046% of the time isn’t a huge concern…
And that’s not even getting into how those “adverse reactions” includes such debilitating conditions as coughing.
600 over three years jesus. I’m pretty sure antibiotics have 100x that
As a GP I know very few doctors who don’t accept that cannabis or cannabis derived products have a role to play in medicine. I know even fewer who don’t see the recent rapid explosion of cannabis prescribing as reckless and dangerous.
As a GP are you for legalisation (similar to alcohol) or for more tightly controlled prescriptions?
Whenever this is raised the argument about legalisation for recreational use is conflated. Alcohol, cocaine, oxycodone etc all have medicinal and recreational uses and we appropriately treat then differently.
If we are using it as medicine, at a minimum we should see prescription tracking and monitoring with implications for doctors prescribing inappropriately similar to the way we treat other medications with potential for abuse.
My opinion, for what it’s worth is that there should be legalised cannabis for recreational purposes.
What we definitely shouldn’t have is a situation where I am having people turning up to my clinic expecting a prescription for recreational doses of flower to smoke.
Many aussies think one joint will drop you into lifelong psychosis. Go to Amsterdam where its legal to buy and they just think its another part of the range of substances there.
The expectation has a lot to do on perceived effects. No way a doctor is gonna get to the bottom of expectations, same way they don’t when they prescribe other drugs with their other dependencies and side effects.
User beware.
Not every drug is suitable for every person, we are each slightly different and that’s okay. If it doesn’t work for you, don’t use it.
HalfEarthMedic@slrpnk.net 21 hours ago
Just putting this here as several commentors seem to have misread my intention posting this here
Most responses here seem to assume that I’m opposed to medical marijuana, I’m not. I am in fact in favor of it’s use, appropriately, in select patients, as with any medication.
I also want to caution against conflating recreational use(which may be problematic but is usually fine) with medicinal use(which should be held to the highest standards of evidence as any medicine should).
Now, regarding the evidence to date, efficacy is well established for refractory epilepsy and spasticity in MS. It is quite well established to have a role in pain control. Evidence that it is superior to other treatments for anxiety is pretty scant, we hold antidepressants to a pretty low standard and cannabis fails to even be that good in the published studies.
In terms of safety we frequently see acute intoxication from prescribed cannabis and worsening of co-morbid mental health conditions is really common. Nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, and abdominal pains are all fairly frequent and I have seen one case of psychosis from prescribed marijuana. What’s more, we see these more commonly in emergency departments, psych wards and GP clinics now that it is easily available from unscrupulous corporate owned clinics.
The article isn’t claiming that medical marijuana is inherently dangerous or that it doesn’t have a role in medicine. It states, correctly, that the TGA has never actually assessed the safety of the vast majority of products on the market. This is concerning for anyone who might want to prescribe these with confidence.
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