A recent Department of Health report found that "expectations have not been fulfilled" three years after medicinal cannabis was legalised in Australia.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
On Monday United in Compassion Founder Lucy Haslam, who along with her late son Dan, spearheaded the legalisation campaign will host a delegation to Canberra to demand better access for patients.
The delegation will include leading health experts and representatives from Epilepsy Australia, Chronic Pain Australia, the Country Women's Association as well as the 63,000 member strong nurses and midwives association to name a few.
Read also:
The group has arranged to meet senior MP's and policy makers from right across the spectrum of politics, however, were disappointed to have the invitation declined by federal health minister Greg Hunt, who was responsible for the roll-out of the original program.
"Despite government assurances to the contrary, we believe Australia's medicinal cannabis programme pretty much failed to deliver for patients," Mrs Haslam said.
"Those concerns have now been validated by the Department of Health report, which found 'expectations have not been fulfilled', and that only a 'relatively small number of patients are receiving prescribed medicinal cannabis, and it is mostly imported, and it is expensive.'"
Government figures claim that in Australia an estimated 15,000 approvals have been granted, however that figure includes repeat prescriptions, as well as unfilled prescriptions for patients that are not able to afford to fill them, or have found an alternate source.
"Three years after the program was rolled-out Australia does not have a domestic industry up and running, and just a few thousand individuals have been approved to access expensive imported products," Mrs Haslam said.
"There are hundreds of thousands of patients, if not more, still forced to rely on the black market for medication."
The delegation will be calling on policy-makers to make several improvements to the current system, provide funding to educate healthcare professionals, and subsidies for those unable to afford such medicines.
"Even if they're prepared to fight their way through all the paperwork, most doctors remain largely uneducated on this," Mrs Haslam said.
"The lack of education, high prices, and the current way cannabis is scheduled means that most sick Australians who could benefit just aren't getting these medicines."
The group will also point to nations such as Denmark, which has 2000 registered patients just six months after legalisation, while Germany has over 60,000 patients after two years.
