Coffs Harbour doctor Gull Herzberg leading the way in medical marijuana

A doctor with extensive experience prescribing medicinal cannabis is working on a guide to better define the products available and their best use.

Coffs Coast doctor Gull Herzberg has been at the forefront of cannabis use for medicinal and scientific purposes since a change in laws made growing it legal.

“In this area a lot of people use it recreationally, and my patients were telling me they use it for pain, their mental health or to help with sleep so I wanted to learn how I could medically prescribe it, and it all built from there,” Dr Herzberg said.

“I have been doing it for as long as almost anyone else.”

One of the founding members of the Australian and New Zealand College of Cannabinoid Practitioners, he is now a leader in the field and works to reduce the stigma surrounding it and improve resources available for other doctors keen to incorporate it in their care.

“There’s cannabis, and there’s cannabis and there’s cannabis,” Dr Herzberg said.

“There are over 300 products available for doctors to prescribe.”

The products vary from cannabis oil to the flower – “just like you would source from old mate down the laneway”.

But unlike the cannabis sourced illegally, the products he prescribes are grown under highly regulated conditions.

“The idea that cannabis equals getting stoned is just one very narrow slice of a very big pie,” Dr Herzberg said.

“The poison is in the dose and medical cannabis is grown under a very strict set of conditions and fully certified.”

He said the majority of his patients sought help with chronic pain or sleep disorders.

One of his favourite stories is of a woman in her 70s who came to him suffering crippling osteoarthritis.

“She had a slight build and lived a big life – was always busy – but she was in a lot of pain and was unable to make a fist,” he said.

For years she had taken up to eight Panadols and six Nurofens a day but with little relief.

After just six months of a very low dose of cannabis oil she was able to make a fist and no longer needed to take pain killers.

“It made a huge difference to her life and she didn’t even know it was an option,” Dr Herzberg said.

Most of the cannabis prescribed in Australia is imported with the bulk coming from Canada.

He said the field was still quite “muddled” and was working on developing a compendium outlining the products available and their suggested use.

He said there was a “developer waiting in the wings” and the next step was to secure funding for the project.