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Speaker 1: Insight into the medicinal cannabis market in this country. Though

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Speaker 1: first access has increased in prices are falling. They're finding

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Speaker 1: though many doctors still reluctant to prescribe potentially PID and

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Speaker 1: THHC products are also a bit of a threat at

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Speaker 1: the moment as well. So interesting report. Massi University Associate

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Speaker 1: professor and co author Chris Wilkins with us on this

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Speaker 1: Chris Morning, Good morning. How would you describe the market

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Speaker 1: in terms of maturity?

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Speaker 2: Well, I think we're still in very early days. But

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Speaker 2: where as you mentioned, there's quite a big increase in

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Speaker 2: number of prescriptions. The prices have gone down and that

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Speaker 2: helps for people to trying to afford these types of medicines.

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Speaker 2: But the market's still evolving. It's very early days.

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Speaker 1: And how would you describe the professionalism of the clinicians

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Speaker 1: and the responsibility they carry and how they're working that out.

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Speaker 2: Well, as again you mentioned that a problem has initially

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Speaker 2: was that gps were not prescribing for a whole of reasons.

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Speaker 2: So what we've had now is the emergence of what

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Speaker 2: we call cannabis clinics, which focus on medicinal cannabis use.

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Speaker 2: So the good news about that is that you're now

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Speaker 2: getting increase in prescriptions and people find access much easier.

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Speaker 2: But it's fair to say that cannabis clinics are more

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Speaker 2: private health options and they are more commercial than your

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Speaker 2: average GP.

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Speaker 1: And a private clinic is a one product clinic. Is

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Speaker 1: that a legit clinic? I mean what, Yes, prescriptions are

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Speaker 1: going up, but prescriptions for what?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right. So some of the concerns that these

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Speaker 2: are a one medicine option, and that's not generally how

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Speaker 2: you want your healthcare to go. So you don't want

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Speaker 2: to go to the health provider and just get one medicine.

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Speaker 2: You want to be have a legitimate diagnosis and then

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Speaker 2: have lots of different options available. So that's a concern.

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Speaker 2: But as I said, the plus side is that we're

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Speaker 2: finally getting the regime working so under through the GPS

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Speaker 2: that we weren't getting many prescriptions and people were really

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Speaker 2: high barriers to actually get in the medicine. That was

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Speaker 2: the intention of the regime.

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Speaker 1: So the problem we've got is people weren't being serviced properly,

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Speaker 1: and in an effort to do it properly, we're kind

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Speaker 1: of doing it for some, but then inevitably out the

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Speaker 1: other side. We've got the whole hang on. This isn't

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Speaker 1: quite what we thought it would be.

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Speaker 2: Scenario Yeah, I mean, I mean it's the reality of life, really,

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Speaker 2: isn't it. That. You know, we've had an unintended outcome,

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Speaker 2: which is the cannabis clinics, which was a market reaction

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Speaker 2: to fill this void and a market solution. So there's

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Speaker 2: just some good things about that. But I guess the

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Speaker 2: thing we need to keep an eye on is how

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Speaker 2: commercial do you want these clinics to be? And there

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Speaker 2: they are, they developing the regime and the way they

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Speaker 2: want it rather than that was intended.

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Speaker 1: Is there any regulatory oversight in the sense? I mean

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Speaker 1: you may or may not know, but I know, for example,

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Speaker 1: the zempic, which isn't available in this country, you know,

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Speaker 1: outside of some fairly rigorous criteria. But if you know

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Speaker 1: the right people and you don't have to be larger

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Speaker 1: in the diabetic you can get a zimpic and there

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Speaker 1: are people who will give it to you for a price.

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Speaker 1: Is there no one looking at this sort of stuff?

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Speaker 2: Well, this is partly why we've got the medicinal cannabis regime,

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Speaker 2: is we want to transition people away from illegal options

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Speaker 2: or gray market options. So another positive of the regime

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Speaker 2: is that now it's working moderately well as all the

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Speaker 2: people that are now getting their cannabis from GPS or

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Speaker 2: from cannabis clinics aren't going to the black market, and

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Speaker 2: so to me, that is also a pretty substantial plus.

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Speaker 2: So they're getting a regulated product, a safer product, and

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Speaker 2: also we're shrinking the black market.

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Speaker 1: All right, Chris, appreciate the insight very much. Chris Wilkins's

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Speaker 1: the Matter University Associate professor.

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