Australia’s Health Minister Cameron Dick has announced that the Queensland government has released the state’s first clinical guidelines for the medical cannabis program, according to a report from the Australian Associated Press. The guidelines will advise physicians on medical cannabis therapies, dosages, and treatment regimens, but require the products to be sourced internationally with the approval of the Therapeutic Goods Administration.
“Medical practitioners have not had information in a domestic setting to allow them to use or understand the use of medicinal cannabis…because the use of medicinal cannabis products in Queensland has been illegal,” he said in the report. “Medical practitioners to this point have had to rely on a range of medical literature sources including information from literature sources internationally.”
Although the Queensland regulations do not provide for cannabis cultivation in Australia, Dick is confident that Australia would eventually allow the cultivation of cannabis for medical purposes. He added that there was “no question” that Queenslanders supported the move.
The Health Minister also said that some doctors remained opposed to medical cannabis use, and for many that do it’s often considered a last resort. Dick is still determining what reporting requirements for doctors, if any, should be implemented under the new rules and whether the program’s results would be made public