NSW doctors able to prescribe medicinal cannabis from tomorrow

Doctors across New South Wales will be able to prescribe medicinal cannabis from tomorrow.

Cannabis medicines have so far only been available to patients enrolled in clinical trials in NSW, but Premier Mike Baird said that regulatory changes would allow the drugs to be prescribed to patients who had exhausted standard treatment options.

“People who are seriously ill should be able to access these medicines if they are the most appropriate next step in their treatment,” he said today.

The Poisons and Therapeutic Goods Amendment Regulation will take effect tomorrow, and will allow doctors to apply to the NSW Health board to prescribe cannabis-based products that are not currently on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods.

Mr Baird said the extension would “increase the options available for doctors” by broadening the number of medicines that can be prescribed.

Doctors will need approval from both the Commonwealth Therapeutic Goods Administration and NSW Health before they can prescribe an unregistered product.

“This isn’t wholesale access to any type of cannabis. It’s about medication obtained legally and it doesn’t mean homemade tinctures and oils,” NSW AMA spokesman, Associate Professor Saxon Smith, told The Daily Telegraph.

With AAP.