High hopes as Medcan cannabis plant launches hiring blitz

A leading southeast medicinal cannabis supplier has launched a hiring blitz to keep up with a massive surge in demand for pot.

A leading southeast medicinal cannabis supplier has launched a hiring blitz to keep up with a massive surge in demand for the drug.

Logan-based Medcan Australia will add 50 new jobs after its business concept of owning the entire supply chain and tapping into a GP network, has set it up to become one of the largest suppliers in the country.

Along with workers to pick and grow cannabis, the company is looking for nurses, health administrators, doctors, biologists, agriculturalists, plus general administration staff, and distribution specialists.

Anyone can apply for a position, with the company banking on a 19 per cent return to investors after an expected revenue increase of 265 per cent this year.

Gone are the days when environmentally conscious hippies owned the cannabis market.

The surge in demand followed a relaxation in laws in October, when the Therapeutic Goods Administration approved 180,000 medicinal cannabis products, with requests to launch new products doubling in a year.

Since then, the number of authorised medical cannabis prescribers has increased from 179 to 430 with at least 20 companies listed on the Australian stockmarket.

Cannabis user and member of the Medicinal Cannabis Users Association Deb Lynch said opening up the market and providing local jobs in the industry was a good way to remove the negative stigma surrounding the drug and those who used it.

But she warned against some cannabis suppliers, who were ripping off patients.

Deb Lynch has campaigned for cannabis to be legalised.

Ms Lynch, who uses cannabis as a pain killer after having part of her leg amputated because of a rare blood disease, was forced to fight charges in court for using the drug.

She said in Logan, an initial doctor’s consultation to get a cannabis script cost between $99 and $540, which was not refundable under Medicare.

“Many clinics are asking outrageous prices and putting medicinal cannabis way out of the reach of the average user,” she said.

“They are asking money upfront and none of it gets rebated back through Medicare.

“It is actually a brilliant business plan getting legal doctors to write legal scripts for corporate products and using people’s GP to do the groundwork and supply reports and history.

“This is a winner for the corporation and the shareholders at the patient’s expense and does nothing for vulnerable people on low incomes who are desperate for access.

“My cannabis script for a month costs me $1920 and I don’t qualify for a 50 per cent discount — not many people do.”

But Medcan chief executive Craig Cochrane said his company was part of a doctor’s network called “Cann I Help”, which offered eligible patients subsidies of 15, 30 and 50 per cent on their cannabis drugs.

Cannabis Medcan CEO Craig Cochran said most cannabis products are not supported on the PBS.

“Most medicinal cannabis drugs are not supported by Australia’s Pharmaceutical Benefits

Scheme (PBS),” Mr Cochrane said.

“But our successful partnership with ‘Cann I Help’ gives subsidies across a range of treatments.”

However, Ms Lynch said there were some Cann I Help patients who had complained the subsidy was hard to get.

To access subsidies, patients must undergo an initial screening with their GP which involves an initial $150 consultation with a doctor from Cann I Help.

An assessment of a patient’s medical condition and their ability to afford medication is then sent to the TGA for approval.

Further consultations to obtain scripts with doctors such as Victoria Point’s Dr Laurence Kemp, cost $75.