Questions raised about easy access to direct-to-door marijuana prescriptions

Marijuana is being home delivered legally across NSW to customers who undergo a couple of simple phone calls and pay fees up to $350 – a system which has been slammed by GPs as a cash grab.

Medical marijuana is being delivered legally to doorsteps with just a few simple phone calls and a $350 price tag in a system that has been slammed by GPs as a cash grab.

Doctors are allowed to prescribe the plant for medical purposes — for illnesses ranging from anxiety to cancer — but Australia‘s medical watchdog requires doctors to consider all appropriate treatment options first.

But online services like Doctor Canna do not require patients to meet doctors face-to-face, instead a nurse assesses them over the phone before a follow up call from a doctor who can sign off on the treatment.

The Daily Telegraph spoke to a number of Doctor Canna customers who revealed the assessment only took a few days. Customers said they paid a $200 prescription fee and another $150 to receive the product and the drug arrived in the post about a week later.

“They asked me if I had used any prior medications and I said ‘no, I just wanted to go the natural way’, they didn’t really question it,” one customer, who did not wish to be named, said.

General practitioners say marijuana is a last-resort treatment, but customers of direct-to-door services claim it’s easy to obtain. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

“It’s because they get a $200 per-customer signing, so I think they want to get as many people as they can.”

A representative from Doctor Canna said “thousands of people had seen reduced symptoms in chronic illness” as a result of their service and insisted healthcare, not business, was their priority.

The medicinal use of cannabis is legal in NSW. Picture: iStock

The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners said it was “very concerned about the proliferation of online prescription business models”.

“A key concern is that these services are fundamentally responding to a business opportunity rather than delivering healthcare, they won’t have patients’ medical history, and can lead to fragmented and poor quality care,” RACGP president Dr Nicole Higgins said.

Instead, she said people should see a GP who could still prescribe marijuana.

“People need to be aware that medicinal cannabis is a last-resort medication for specific illnesses. Most of the research on medicinal cannabis products is on five clinical conditions: multiple sclerosis, palliative care, epilepsy, nausea and vomiting and chronic non-cancer pain,” Dr Higgins said.

The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners said it was “very concerned” by the direct-to-door online prescription model. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

The TGA said doctors could prescribe “unapproved medicines” under systems known as the authorised prescriber scheme and the special access scheme.

“Subject to obtaining the necessary approvals, any registered medical doctor in Australia can prescribe medicinal cannabis, if the doctor makes a clinical based judgment that this is the appropriate treatment for their patient,” the TGA said.

The Australian Medical Association also emphasised the importance of patients getting appropriate consultation before being prescribed the drugs.

“GPs and specialists may prescribe medicinal cannabis as a treatment option for patients with specific conditions, but should have a detailed consultation with patients regarding the potential benefits and harms. Other treatment options should be considered before medicinal cannabis is prescribed,” AMA president Dr Michael Bonning said.

Health Minister Brad Hazzard was not familiar with Doctor Canna but said he would have concerns if patients were not having their medical history taken.

“The understanding when we freed up extra blockages to access medicinal cannabis was that prescriptions would be done by general practitioners who were trained in the usage and benefits of medical cannabis and the usual history taken,” he said.