Never-before-seen footage of Victoria's medicinal cannabis crop

New footage of Victoria’s medicinal cannabis crop has been released, along with a promise the treatment will “change so many lives”.

Premier Daniel Andrews shared the footage of the first approved Australian crop to his Facebook page today, after Victoria became the first state to legalise cannabis for medical use.

The video shows forensic testers pruning and drying the crop before it is pressed into oil.

More than 150 plants were delivered to the Melbourne-based Cann group, which was the first company issued with a licence to be able to grow medicinal cannabis in Australia.

Other crops have also been approved in Queensland, Western Australia and New South Wales.

In March, the Andrews Government spent almost $1 million to import the product from Canada to treat 29 children with severe epilepsy, with the wait for locally-produced cannabis then thought to be too long.

Victoria’s locally produced crop is made at a secret location and will be produced in oil, capsule, vapour and spray forms.

Research has proven that medicinal cannabis, cannabidiol, can significantly reduce convulsive seizures in children with severe epilepsy.

The international study, published earlier this year in The New England Journal of Medicine, focused on Dravet syndrome, a severe epilepsy beginning in infancy where children experience drug-resistant seizures.

Earlier this year, Health Minister Jill Hennessy said the next stage would be to determine which adults would be eligible for treatment with medicinal cannabis.