Federal health regulators issue script guidance for medical cannabis fearing abuse

Federal health regulators have issued script guidance for medical cannabis following increased cases of patients turning up to emergency departments with psychosis.

Doctors have described medical cannabis users turning up to emergency departments in psychosis. Picture: NCA NewsWire

Medicinal cannabis users could find it harder to access the drug as regulators give doctors new prescription guidance as part of a new crackdown.

The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency and other regulators are concerned by reports of patients presenting to emergency departments with medicinal cannabis induced psychosis.

This, combined with evidence of over-servicing and ethical grey areas around single-purpose dispensaries, has led the regulator to clarify the expectations of practitioners working in the industry.

The Australian Medical Association Queensland has been campaigning for a clampdown.

The guidance reminds prescribers that medicinal cannabis should be treated as a medicine and to be as careful and diligent when prescribing medicinal cannabis as they are when prescribing other drugs of dependence.

“We don’t prescribe opioids to every patient who asks for them, and medicinal cannabis is no different. Patient demand is no indicator of clinical need,” Medical Board of Australia Chair, Dr Susan O’Dwyer.

The guidance addresses the regulator’s concern that profits are regulators are stepping in to guide practitioners who prescribe medicinal cannabis due to evidence that poor practice is leading to significant patient harm.

The guidance addresses the regulators’ concern that profits are being prioritised over patient safety and aims to support practitioners to provide safe care, particularly for those patients at most risk of harm.

Adjunct Professor Veronica Casey AM, Chair of the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, urges nurse practitioners within the industry to combine this guidance with their professional practice framework when conducting assessments.

“‘Nurses and other registered practitioners must provide holistic care in all areas of their practice,” Adjunct Professor Casey said.

“They must take their professional responsibilities with them no matter where they work.”

Safe prescribing of medicinal cannabis includes assessing patients thoroughly, formulating and implementing a management plan, facilitating coordination and continuity of care, maintaining medical records, recommending treatments only where there is an identified therapeutic need, ensuring medicinal cannabis is never a first line treatment, and developing an exit strategy from the beginning.