People prescribed medicinal cannabis will have now access to it within two days under streamlined process- By political reporter Isabella Higgins. April 2018
Australians prescribed medicinal cannabis will now have access to the drug within two days, after a meeting of state and territory health ministers in Sydney.
Patients have been waiting months for access to the drug, under current legislation which sees a double-approval process from both state and federal regulators.
Mid May, all state and territories signed up to the national scheme, which allows the approvals process to be streamlined through one national body.
" Faster access, better access … there will be a one-stop shop for accessing medicinal cannabis," Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said.
" The decision as to whether or not to prescribe is rightly in the hands of medical professionals, but once that decision is made, access will then be provided within what we expect to be a 48-hour period.
Who can get medicinal marijuana? The Federal Government has approved the sale of medicinal marijuana, but it still won ' t be easy for people to get a prescription.
" In many cases, as low as 24 hours."
The single approvals process, through the Therapeutic Goods Administration( TGA), started operating in New South Wales last month.
Mr Hunt argued it had been a very successful trial. " We ' ve already seen, in New South Wales, the time for prescriptions drop dramatically from two months to two days in that system” he said
" This is an important day for patient access. EDITOR: who does Hunt think he is kidding. To access the medicinal Cannabis through the SAS or CAS schemes is exactly the same. Nothing has changed, More smoke and mirrors by an incompetent Liberal Government. This only changes the access time line for the very very few Australians who have been prescribed. Now we want to see a quality product at an affordable price. " Now time should not be a matter of concern once a doctor has made his or her prescription."
This involves a long process of approvals through the states and the Therapeutic Goods Association, who require paperwork outlining the evidence and potential benefits, and it ' s also reliant on the availability of the drug overseas.
As of now, though, it will be easier to import medicinal marijuana from approved international suppliers, which means the product will be able to be imported in bulk and warehoused in Australia until it ' s needed.
Health Minister Greg Hunt says the importation rules will be relaxed until there ' s an Australian industry that ' s up to the task of meeting demand.
That could be a while: a law allowing the cultivation of medicinal marijuana in Australia only came into effect in October last year, and the first licence for private cultivation was only issued last week.