Demand for medicinal cannabis on the rise, new report reveals
The second annual Cannabis in Australia report drops some staggering numbers on the use of the psychoactive drug.
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Demand for medicinal cannabis in 2023 has more than doubled in the first half of this year with Australians spending about $210 million on products like weed gummies and oils in just six months, according to a new report.
The second annual Cannabis in Australia report reveals while requests for medicinal cannabis are steadily increasing, cannabis also remains the most-used and the most-policed substance in Australia.
The report by the Penington Institute, a health policy think tank, shows that since July 2016 when it became available to July 2023, there have been 812,262 scripts for approved cannabis products through doctors – with 319,679 approvals occurring in just the first half of 2023.
An additional 447,505 special approvals have been given for products over the same time period, which are not regulated by the TGA. Of those approvals for patients aged 18 to 44 were more likely to be for men (65 per cent) than women.
Penington CEO, John Ryan, said prescribing cannabis with medical supervision can reduce the harms caused by the ongoing criminalisation of non-prescribed cannabis.
“Around 90 per cent of all cannabis-related arrests between 2011 and 2021 were for the possession of small amounts of cannabis. Law enforcement related to cannabis alone costs Australia $1.7 billion annually – money that could be far better spent tackling serious crimes,” Mr Ryan said.
“The economic value of a legal and strictly regulated framework could vastly exceed expenditures on law enforcement, as has already happened in Canada.”
At the same time the report shows the demand and supply of cannabis in Australia points to a large market that is well supplied.
There were an unprecedented 24,255 border busts of illicit cannabis in 2020-21 (the most recent year of data) – almost double the number from the previous year.
Onshore there were 55,199 seizures of illicit cannabis in Australia in 2020-21 which was slightly down from the previous year.
Cannabis accounted for almost half (47.1 per cent) of the 140,624 drug-related arrests across Australia in 2020-21, with 90 per cent of national cannabis arrests affecting cannabis users rather than suppliers.
This means that the vast majority of people arrested for illicit cannabis are arrested for offences relating to personal use and possession and very few are arrested for trafficking offences.
The report says that roadside drug testing in Australia remains one of the most significant barriers to medicinal cannabis access, as it remains illegal to drive with any amount of THC in one’s system.
The laws mean medicinal cannabis patients face fines or criminal penalties if they drive a car. Tasmania is the only Australian jurisdiction that allows a medical defence for driving with THC in the driver’s system.
The report also found that support for cannabis law reform in Australia remains strong.
Four in 10 Australians (41 per cent) supported the legalisation of cannabis in 2019, steadily increasing from 21 per cent in 2007.
The latest Australian Institute of Health and Welfare National Drug Strategy Household survey showed support for legalisation had overtaken opposition.
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