The current barriers to patient access to medicinal cannabis in Australia, including:
(a)
the appropriateness of the current regulatory regime through the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) Special Access Scheme (SAS), Authorised Prescriber Scheme and clinical trials;
(b)
the suitability of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme for subsidising patient access to medicinal cannabis products;
(c)
the interaction between state and territory authorities and the Commonwealth, including overlap and variation between state and territory schemes;
(d)
Australia’s regulatory regime in comparison to international best practice models for medicinal cannabis regulation and patient access;
(e)
the availability of training for doctors in the current TGA regulatory regime for prescribing medicinal cannabis to their patients;
(f)
the education of doctors in the Endogenous Cannabinoid System (ECS), and the appropriateness of medicinal cannabis treatments for various indications;
(g)
sources of information for doctors about uses of medicinal cannabis and how these might be improved and widened;
(h)
delays in access, and the practice of product substitution, due to importation of medicinal cannabis and the shortage of Australian manufactured medicinal cannabis products;
(i) the current status of the domestic regulated medicinal cannabis industry;
(j)
the impacts on the mental and physical wellbeing of those patients struggling to access medicinal cannabis through Australia’s regulatory regime;
(k)
the particular barriers for those in rural and remote areas in accessing medicinal cannabis legally;
(l) the significant financial barriers to accessing medicinal cannabis treatment;
(m)
the number of Australian patients continuing to rely on unregulated supply of medicinal cannabis due to access barriers and the impacts associated with that; and
(n) any related matters.