Australia's medical marijuana industry to boom: report

Access to this drug is still severely restricted two years after the national legalization of its use for medical purposes, but a new online application system has increased approvals approved in recent months.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration has approved 469 applications of the drug under the special access regime between August and September. This only increased by 97 between January and February.

The TGA notes that it is unable to calculate the number of patients accurately and that it is possible for a patient to have several applications approved. Be that as it may, the industry is expected to see a boom in the coming years, spurring the cannabis-based pharmaceutical sector, its advocates and patients who gathered in Sydney this week for the CannaTech conference .

Market Information Company, Prohibition Partners, to discuss new report suggesting legal medicinal cannabis market, currently valued at $ 17.7 million a year, could reach $ 1.2 billion by 2024 then 3 billion by 2028.

The Australian cannabis industry could grow even further with a leisure market worth up to $ 8.8 billion a year in a decade if it is legalized quickly, says the report.

One of the first Australians to have access to legal cannabis oil is NSW's father, Simon Sweeting, who treated his chronic spine pain with 10 to 15 tablets a day. He said that he needed to go through all kinds of things, including alleviating the concerns of his GP, for nearly a year to have access to oil of legal cannabis.

But after starting working on oil in February, he has no more tablet.

"I take oil every day, orally, in a liquid form that tastes a little similar to grape seed oil," he told AAP. "It changed my life."

Joshua Eades, lead scientist for Canadian cannabis producer Tilray, acknowledges that recruiting health professionals is an integral part of the process for allowing more patients to access legal cannabis treatments.

He added that the main misconception is that the side effects and harmful effects of cannabis are worse than other pain medications, such as opioids.

"As with any medical product, there are side effects, but … medical cannabis can be a much less harmful option for patients," he said.

The researcher also pointed out that the medical and recreational cannabis industries were on very different paths, as his employer focused on safe ways to treat epileptic seizures, PTSD and other ailments.

"It's a totally different story from the recreational use of cannabis," said Dr. Eades.