A business with close links to telehealth clinic Dispensed has been targeting vulnerable veterans with offers of free medicinal cannabis with barely any medical oversight, it has been alleged.
VeteranCann, which has the same registered address as Dispensed, is accused of sending one patient 14 bottles of oil – half containing THC – in under a month following a solitary call with a doctor.
It is alleged it continued to dispatch medicine to the 35-year-old army veteran even after he told them he was addicted.
The allegations emerged from an ABC investigation, the latest in a series of negative stories to appear in the mainstream media in recent weeks.
The report alleges veterans have been targeted with social media adverts offering “natural therapies” which have been “backed by the Department of Veterans Affairs”.
It quotes one patient as saying he was in a “borderline drug-induced psychosis”, had taken sick leave and felt like a “zombie” after being over-prescribed.
Despite informing VeteranCann of his issues, he reportedly received another two shipments of medicinal cannabis.
“What is wrong with this system? Why should addictive medication be sent three times to a drug-addicted veteran?” he was quoted as saying.
The ABC said it spoke to numerous veterans who accused “major industry players” of exploitative behaviour.
Another veteran claimed she had a 20-minute consultation with a VeteranCann nurse before being prescribed THC oil by a doctor she had never spoken to.
She also said she received “weird” texts message from the firm urging her to take advantage of the “free” medicine that was now available.
VeteranCann told the ABC the texts came from a “trained and experienced veteran advocate” paid to “onboard veterans”, but apologised for the messages which it said “should not have been sent”.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) is understood to be investigating.
VeteranCann is owned by an individual named Nicolas Panek, with the registered address in Dandenong, Victoria the same as that of Dispensed and a wholly-owned entity called VeteranCann Clinic.
Dispensed founder Adam Younes, who was banned in September from dispensing schedule 8 medicine, is the sole director of VeteranCann Clinic.
It is the latest controversy to hit Dispensed after it emerged last month that the clinic was under investigation after one of its doctors allegedly inappropriately prescribed THC to a patient who later took his own life.
Two doctors were suspended, along with Younes.
In additional damning revelations in the latest investigation, the ABC alleged Panek had posted abusive and misogynistic posts on Facebook.
After learning of the content, VeteranCann Clinic said it “immediately ceased” working with Panek, branding the posts “abhorrent”.
