Medicinal cannabis prescribers will gather in Queensland next month as the industry continues to build knowledge and demonstrate the medicine’s valuable role in the Australian healthcare system.
The Australian and New Zealand College of Cannabinoid Practitioners (ANZCCP) will stage its third annal conference with a line-up of domestic and international speakers addressing some of the key issues facing the sector.
Under the theme ‘precision, compassion, evolution – the next chapter in cannabinoid medicine’, the conference will explore latest research, offer practical insights for clinical practice, and deepen the understanding of cannabinoid medicine.
It comes at a critical time for the industry which has been in the spotlight for months, most recently following publication of a high profile paper in Lancet Psychiatry which questioned the efficacy of medical cannabis.
ANZCCP vice president Dr Orit Holtzman said practitioners are under increasing pressure to show medicinal cannabis has a genuine role to play in healthcare.
“Australia’s medicinal cannabis sector has grown at a pace that our frameworks simply weren’t designed for,” she said. “Prescriptions have skyrocketed, the TGA is actively reviewing its approach to unapproved products, and the industry is under increasing scrutiny from regulators, the medical establishment and the public.
“Across the Tasman, New Zealand faces its own challenges – company collapses, new advertising restrictions from Medsafe, and physicians still reluctant to prescribe due to limited clinical evidence and concerns about professional reputation.
“On both sides, clinicians are navigating prescribing standards, affordability barriers, and the pressure to demonstrate that this field deserves its place in legitimate healthcare.
“This is exactly why the ANZCCP conference exists. It brings together clinicians and researchers from across Australia and New Zealand doing this work at the coalface. If you’re a practitioner serious about raising the standard of care in this space, this is where you need to be.”
Among the speakers are ANZCCP board member Dr Michael Murphy, a New Zealand-based acute care clinician, who will provide insights from the prescribing landscape across the Tasman.
Other international speakers including Israeli-based researcher professor Dedi Meiri, a frequent visitor to Australia, Dr Shiksha Gallow from South Africa who will address the conference about compassion in clinical cannabinoid practice, and Roei Zerahia from MSICS Pharma, also in Israel, who will present the latest psilocybin research.
“Answers to our local challenges increasingly require a global perspective,” Dr Holtzman said.
Other subjects tackled in the program include tolerance management, paediatric prescribing, ethics, legislation and compliance.
The conference takes place at the Elysium Noosa Retreat between May 29 and 31.
Tickets and further details can be found here.