Ticket sales have opened for the 2025 United in Compassion Symposium in what will be Lucy Haslam’s final bow as event organiser.
The symposium, which takes place at Brisbane’s Royal International Convention Centre between February 21-23, will be themed ‘towards mainstream’ to reflect the progress the industry has made since legalisation.
Early-bird tickets are priced $1,054 for members of the Australian Medicinal Cannabis Association, and $1,100 for non-members.
Tickets include both the Saturday and Sunday conferences sessions on February 22 and 23, welcome drinks reception on February 21, and Saturday night party at The Tivoli Theatre in Fortitude Valley – where attendees will be invited to dress in ‘fifty shades of green’.
Prices from October 1 rise to $1,320 for non-members and $1,122 for members.
To attend the conference only, early-bird tickets until September 30 are priced $680 for members and $716 for non-members.
The symposium will open on Friday February 21 with an education day for healthcare practitioners, including breakout sessions for prescribers, pharmacists and nurses.
Among the keynote speakers in the main program include Dr Peter Grinspoon, a physician from Massachusetts General Hospital and board member of advocacy group Doctors for Cannabis Regulation, US-based palliative and hospice specialist Dr Sue Sisley, well-known paediatrician Bonni Goldstein and osteopathic physician Dr Dustin Sulak.
The Saturday night party has been timed to not only mark Medicinal Cannabis Awareness Week – the third time the event has been held – but to remember Dan Haslam on the 1oth anniversary of his passing.
Writing in the sponsor prospectus, Lucy Haslam confirmed the 2025 Symposium would be her swan song as event organiser.
“[It] marks a sad milestone for our family with the 10th anniversary of Dan’s death on February 24 ,” she said. “I have decided to draw a line in the sand at that point and will hand over the responsibility and pleasure of continuing UIC to AMCA.”
Reflecting on the past decade, Haslam wrote: “I think there is little doubt that there are many positive examples of how the Australian medicinal cannabis landscape is improving and how Australian patients are embracing the option to move to cannabinoids and away from some of the more conventional and accepted medicines and the harm that so often accompanies them.
She added: “We must keep striving for a better industry, better regulation and better opportunities for Australian businesses. In doing that, we are doing the best for our patients and that should always be the common thread throughout the sector.”
Haslam warned of the “conflict” that comes with the “lure of high profits”, and said her “biggest disappointment” of the past 10 years has been the ongoing stigma and negativity perpetuated by “those who prefer to remain sceptics”.
“The stigma…is hard to shake,” she wrote. “But we can overcome it by insisting on quality, building trust, prescribing responsibly and being confident that science will eventually provide the evidence that has been lacking.”
For more information on the UIC Symposium and to book tickets, click here.