Australia plans to exports its medical Cannabis products in global market

Sydney, January 4: Australia is planning to become the fourth country in the world to legalize medicinal marijuana exports in a bid to score a piece of the estimated $55 billion global market.

Cannabis cultivation in Australia is still relatively small, as recreational use remains illegal. But the government hopes domestic medicinal use, legalized last year, and exports will rapidly boost production.

The health minister, Greg Hunt, said allowing medicinal cannabis product exports will help the developing domestic market to grow. “By helping the domestic manufacturers to expand, this, in turn, helps to ensure an ongoing supply of medicinal cannabis products here in Australia,” Hunt said in a statement.

He said he hopes Australia can be the world’s top supplier of medicinal cannabis.The export permit will be done by regulation.The federal government in 2016 legalised patient access to Australian-grown and manufactured medicinal cannabis, subject to state and territory regulations.Victoria became Australia’s first state to legalise cannabis for medical use and was quickly followed by New South Wales.

The federal health department said 350 patients have accessed Australian-grown medicinal cannabis products.However, there are some concerns doctors are reluctant to prescribe the products. Hunt said while it was “understandable” many doctors were reluctant to prescribe a drug that has only recently received approval, he assured the medical community there was “now no real government barriers at all to accessing medicinal cannabis”.

“It is up to individual doctors – governments shouldn’t interfere in the prescribing practices of individual doctors.