Cannainal Cannabis is a gigantic business. But the latest clamps do not limit risky regulations

Key regulator of the Australian healthcare professionals announced it tightens Dangerous prescription of healing marijuana As a result of the growing demand of the patient.

The Australian Agency for Regulation of Doctors, known as AHPRA, today warned healthcare professionals that they would have to face the well -being of patients against profits.

Among his fears were aggressive marketing strategies by clinics prescribing medicinal marijuana and consultations lasting from a few seconds to a few minutes before rewriting.

Such fears led that eight practitioners were issued by over 10,000 scripts in a six -month window, and one that seemed to be over 17,000 scripts.

Other Ahpra fears include reports of patients with psychosis after taking medicinal marijuana, rewriting high doses and prescribing family members or people under 18 years of age.

However, the hypersensitizing, improper rewriting and health problems that may arise are issues we have known for years.

Our researchFor example, I watched many websites offering healing marijuana in Australia. We found common examples of aggressive and misleading marketing. Some clinics have violated regulatory guidelines. Others have bent the rules.

However, the latest announcement of AHPR does not exacerbate existing prescribing or marketing principles regarding medical hemp. It simply reminds doctors, nurses and pharmacists what the rules are.

What is the regulator about?

According to 2022–23 National Drug Strategy House Gurnment3% of Australians at the age of 14 or older used hemp for medical purposes in the last 12 months, which means about 700,000 people.

Australians have released Over $ 400 million On healing cannabis products in the first half of 2024.

But Ahpra is concerned about too many health doctors prescribes healing marijuana when the patient asks for it, not whether it is the right product for them.

This suggests that too few doctors thoroughly assess patients, formulate and implement a management plan, facilitating coordination and continuity of care, maintaining medical records, recommending treatment only if there is an identified therapeutic need, and ensures that hemp hemp is not the treatment of the first throw.

So Ahpra claims that he will examine practitioners with a high indicator of prescribing a planned medicine, including hemp hemp, even if she did not receive a complaint.

We found many aggressive marketing

Healing hemp has been legally available in Australia since 2016. This means that doctors can prescribe it for any diseases when other approved treatments do not work. Now patients can be prescribed medicinal marijuana as a capsule, oil or dried flower, often, often via a website.

But when we analyze the websites of 54 private hemp clinics in Australia, an alarming picture appeared.

We found many examples of websites that violated or bypassed or bypassed them. This included unjustified health claims regarding the products they offer, such as they treat anxiety, depression or other symptoms of mental health.

Websites often allow people to assess whether hemps were for them. This self -esteem may mislead people to believe that they will operate this, unintentional “coaching”, on which medical conditions can justify the prescription.

Other marketing tactics that we found included the promises of delivery on the same day or after hours, does not require a general doctor, disclosed consultation fees and targeted advertising in social media.

What we would like to see

The goal of safer medicinal marijuana prescribing a safer prescribing is welcome. But simply repeating the rules, instead of tightening them, it doesn’t go far enough. So Ahpra missed the real opportunity to protect patients’ health.

For example, we would like more emphasis on prohibiting targeted advertising in social media in the field of healing marijuana. In the study we put for publication, we found this special problem.

We discovered that many private clinics operate ads to reach teenage people, including those teenage at the age of 18. One company conducted over 170 dynamic advertising on Facebook, Instagram and threads this month.

The ads we have seen include mysterious messages, such as “we cannot scream about it, but our patients smile”, combined with radiant colors and images about biological renewal.

One connects the Australian sports celebrity with the slogan “Move differently!” and product name.

Another promises “real doctors, real care” and “quick approval and express delivery”, and consultations for $ 19.

Although these ads do not mention directly from healing marijuana, the message is clearly designed to cause curiosity and building brand recognition, especially among younger recipients.

We would also like to see Ahpra:

• It expands concentration except for prescribing patterns to include digital and advertising marketing practices that are addressed to teenage people

• Enter clear guidelines for healing cannabis clinics and provisions on acceptable promotional practices

• It supports stronger consequences for repetitive criminals, including regulations, who are still involved in misleading advertising after sanctioning.