The Australian Medicinal Cannabis Association (AMCA) and The Society of Cannabis Clinicians of the USA have announced the Australian chapter of The Society of Cannabis Clinicians.
The formation of the Society of Cannabis Clinicians Australian Chapter (SCCAC) follows the significant growth in prescribers and prescriptions since medical cannabis was legalised in 2016.
Founding member and AMCA general manager Gail Wiseman said: “The establishment of the Society of Cannabis Clinicians – Australian Chapter was the first major project for AMCA and we are excited to see how well supported it has already been by its founding group of nearly 20 dedicated individuals.
“We see SCCAC bringing all of the advantages offered by the international SCC organisation while uniting and meeting the specific needs of Australian-based health care practitioners (HCPs) and their affiliates.
“SCCAC had its inaugural meeting on November 3 and its priority interests were very clear – a strong focus on providing education to interested HCPs on the endocannabinoid system and best-practice prescribing of medicinal cannabis, and reducing the stigma associated with the use of medicinal cannabis.
“AMCA and SCC will continue to provide administrative support to the fledgling SCCAC whilw allowing it to operate as an independent, non-political organisation.”
The goals of the organisation are to educate people about medical cannabis; facilitate best practice standards for cannabis consultations; study, discuss and make recommendations relating to research, practice and policy in the medical use of cannabis; recruit medical graduates and physicians willing to recommend cannabis to patients; and to maintain and advance the highest possible ideals and service standards in education, practice and research in the medical use of cannabis.
At SCCAC’s inaugural meeting, Dr James Connell (pictured) was elected president with Dr Joel Wren named vice president of the association.
The society has 17 founding members and new members are welcome. For more information or to join, email info@ausmca.org.
This is quite inspiring and seems that with such strong support it will be able to actually affect a lot of change in a bottleneck area – prescribing. Keen to follow this in the coming months.