Information for Medical Practitioners on Prescribing Medical Marijuana

[Medical Marijuana]

While I was in Nimbin attending the 2008 Mardi Grass and the Australian Cannabis Cup, I was fortunate to make the acquaintance of Andrew Kavasilas. Andrew is involved closely with the Nimbin Hemp Embassy, and is perhaps Australia's foremost authority on Cannabis and medical marijuana. He is a true Cannabis warrior!...and he is my friend!
Andrew has written a wonderful book, "Medical Use of Cannabis - Information for Medical Practitioners". It is an Australian research guide to scientific findings on the medical use of Cannabis.
This book is a guide to medical practitioners, on prescribing medical marijuana. It is in my opinion the most thorough treatise on medical marijuana I have ever seen, and should be essential/required reading by all doctors, and medical marijuana users.
The book is available through Medical Cannabis Information Service.

MCIS is a not for profit group which offers advice and help to people interested in the use of cannabis for medical purposes.

Up until the 1960s cannabis was used medicinally and was included on the Australian Pharmacopoeia, when it was removed for political rather than scientific grounds. During this subsequent period of prohibition, information on cannabis and especially its medicinal properties has been highly suppressed and misrepresented. The situation is now changing, with more and more medical cannabis research projects being carried out that are showing good results for people with conditions that are not responding to pharmaceutical and other medications.

In NSW, a report by the Australian Committee for medical cannabis has paved the way for an introduction of limited provisions for cannabis use. The NSW government subsequently appointed a Working Party to further explore the topic. This Working party was made up of some of the top law and medical professionals in NSW.

The base terms of reference for the Working Party were to assess the medical safety of cannabis, to review medical and scientific literature, to establish what further research is required, to establish how cannabis could be most effectively administered, to establish how cannabis should be supplied for medical use while discouraging recreational use, dealing and trafficking, to identify ethical, legal, pharmacological, physiological, mental, general health and community implications and issues concerning the use of cannabis for medical purposes and to make recommendations to an Expert Advisory Group on Drugs.

The Medical Cannabis Information Service made submissions to the Working Party and were subsequently invited to respond to the Government report.

The report makes 24 recommendations for the government to consider so as to allow people in genuine need of cannabis for medical purposes to be exempt from the criminal justice system. The report also recommends a clinical trial for a handful of terminal patients. We believe the Working Party Report has merit in that it justifiably accepts the role cannabis has played over thousands of years as a beneficial relieving herb, and goes further by recognising large groups of patients who may achieve relief from conditions that do not respond to modern pharmaceuticals.

We have however viewed a variety of factors in the report that will add particularly different problems for patients that are already using cannabis, and for those who want to use cannabis for conditions otherwise not treatable.

In line with the guidelines being considered by the NSW government, Medical Cannabis Information Service will endeavour to provide pro-active advice to people who use and or want to use cannabis. We will continue to give feedback and advice to government and others needing updated information on the current situation.



Here is an example of information contained in this book.