Medicinal Cannabis Not Accessible

Western Australian’s are being hamstrung by our current Labor Government when it comes to the use of Medicinal Cannabis.

We have been advised that a committee put in place by the McGowan Government to approve Medicinal Cannabis use for patients extra to Federal approval requirements has 20 people on it. Additionally the wait time for approval for access is around 2 months. It astounds me that any committee would ever require 20 people on it. If this is the truth, which I will certainly be following up on, how could this be justified given our current fiscal position in this state?

It was also stated that in WA, there was a requirement to fill in 3 separate forms and was very time consuming for Doctors, deterring them from wanting to participate. As there is already a Federal system in place, adding an extra layer of administration for doctors to have to get state approval every single time, for every single patient prescribed medicinal cannabis is crazy.

By comparison, if we look at Victoria, it has a 1 page online form to be filled out by Doctors to gain Medicinal Cannabis use approval. It has a 1 day turnaround time frame, between submitting the form, and gaining approval.

We can also look at The South Australian Governments announcement back in April. It was slashing red tape so the drug could be prescribed by GP’s for periods of up to two months without a state sign-off being required.

The Tasmanian Government go as far as subsidising Medicinal Cannabis as they obviously see how much it is needed to help those suffering in the community.

I have also been informed that representatives from within the industry have constantly been pushing to have all of the above implemented in WA!

It's embarrassing that WA is the only state that hasn't made any headway with these issues, and we are the only state without some sort of Medical Cannabis office at state level. From what I have been told, Industry involvement/discussion with the WA Government has not been encouraged, (as it has with SA Government and other states) but has in fact, been avoided and ignored, despite best efforts to secure this opportunity with the State Health ministry office.