Chris Wilkins: Massey University Researcher on health sector concerns about medical cannabis

There's concern in the health sector over medicinal cannabis being treated as a one-stop-shop for illnesses.  

A study published in today's Medical Journal reveals the products are becoming more psychoactive, with higher THC levels. 

The lead author says many GPs aren't confident in prescribing medicinal cannabis themselves. 

Massey University Researcher Chris Wilkins told Mike Hosking it is an evolving market, still in its early stages.  

He says patients should have multiple treatment options outside of medicinal cannabis.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Insight into the medicinal cannabis market in this country. Though
first access has increased in prices are falling. They're finding
though many doctors still reluctant to prescribe potentially PID and
THHC products are also a bit of a threat at
the moment as well. So interesting report. Massi University Associate
professor and co author Chris Wilkins with us on this
Chris Morning, Good morning. How would you describe the market
in terms of maturity?

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Well, I think we're still in very early days. But
where as you mentioned, there's quite a big increase in
number of prescriptions. The prices have gone down and that
helps for people to trying to afford these types of medicines.
But the market's still evolving. It's very early days.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
And how would you describe the professionalism of the clinicians
and the responsibility they carry and how they're working that out.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Well, as again you mentioned that a problem has initially
was that gps were not prescribing for a whole of reasons.
So what we've had now is the emergence of what
we call cannabis clinics, which focus on medicinal cannabis use.
So the good news about that is that you're now

(01:11):
getting increase in prescriptions and people find access much easier.
But it's fair to say that cannabis clinics are more
private health options and they are more commercial than your
average GP.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
And a private clinic is a one product clinic. Is
that a legit clinic? I mean what, Yes, prescriptions are
going up, but prescriptions for what?

Speaker 2 (01:34):
Yeah, that's right. So some of the concerns that these
are a one medicine option, and that's not generally how
you want your healthcare to go. So you don't want
to go to the health provider and just get one medicine.
You want to be have a legitimate diagnosis and then
have lots of different options available. So that's a concern.

(01:57):
But as I said, the plus side is that we're
finally getting the regime working so under through the GPS
that we weren't getting many prescriptions and people were really
high barriers to actually get in the medicine. That was
the intention of the regime.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
So the problem we've got is people weren't being serviced properly,
and in an effort to do it properly, we're kind
of doing it for some, but then inevitably out the
other side. We've got the whole hang on. This isn't
quite what we thought it would be.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
Scenario Yeah, I mean, I mean it's the reality of life, really,
isn't it. That. You know, we've had an unintended outcome,
which is the cannabis clinics, which was a market reaction
to fill this void and a market solution. So there's
just some good things about that. But I guess the

(02:47):
thing we need to keep an eye on is how
commercial do you want these clinics to be? And there
they are, they developing the regime and the way they
want it rather than that was intended.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
Is there any regulatory oversight in the sense? I mean
you may or may not know, but I know, for example,
the zempic, which isn't available in this country, you know,
outside of some fairly rigorous criteria. But if you know
the right people and you don't have to be larger
in the diabetic you can get a zimpic and there
are people who will give it to you for a price.
Is there no one looking at this sort of stuff?

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Well, this is partly why we've got the medicinal cannabis regime,
is we want to transition people away from illegal options
or gray market options. So another positive of the regime
is that now it's working moderately well as all the
people that are now getting their cannabis from GPS or
from cannabis clinics aren't going to the black market, and

(03:41):
so to me, that is also a pretty substantial plus.
So they're getting a regulated product, a safer product, and
also we're shrinking the black market.

Speaker 1 (03:50):
All right, Chris, appreciate the insight very much. Chris Wilkins's
the Matter University Associate professor.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
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