Pastilles are edging closer to becoming the second most prescribed dosage form through the Special Access Scheme (SAS) after showing further growth, latest figures have shown.
Doctors received approval from the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) for almost 4,000 pastille prescriptions in August, accounting for 23.3% of total medicinal cannabis SAS-B scripts, up from 21% in July.
The growth put pastilles less than six percentage points behind oil’s 28.9%. Flower remained the most prescribed form, with 38.6% of approvals.
Overall, however, approvals fell away during August, with 17,130 successful applications. Only January (16,210) has recorded fewer in 2025.
Nevertheless, it took the eight month SAS-B total to almost 150,000, 22% higher than the same period last year.
Chronic pain was again the condition for which medicinal cannabis was most prescribed, accounting for 45% of approvals, followed by anxiety with 28% – down from 30% in July and 31.6% for the year to date – and sleep disorders 15%. PTSD accounted for 2%.
In line with historic trends, patients aged 18-44 accounted for the lion’s share of approvals (60%), followed by 45-64 year olds (31%).
Almost one in four prescriptions were issued for men aged between 18 and 44.
Category 5 medicine, which contains less than 2% CBD, accounted for 49.5% of approvals, followed by category 3 (17.6%), category 1 (14.6%), category 2 (11.2%) and category 4 (7%).
Prescribers in Victoria generated 7,620 approvals, 44.5% of the August total, followed by Queensland with 5,520 prescriptions, representing 32%.