Medical Marijuana - Cannabis in Australia

Systematic Review: Cannabinoids in the Management of Chronic Nonmalignant Neuropathic Pain

What is Chronic Nonmalignant Neuropathic Pain?

Chronic nonmalignant pain is pain defined as an “unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage” lasting either (1) 3 months or longer or (2) longer than expected given a certain injury. It can result from trauma, a disease process,...

Study: Daily Cannabis Use Has No Effect on Brain Volume or Shape

A new study published in the Journal of Neuroscience has found that daily cannabis use has no effect on the volume or shape of an individual’s brain.

For the study, researchers at the University of Colorado “examined brain morphology in a sample of adult daily marijuana users versus nonusers and a sample of adolescent daily users versus...

Health of Mernda preschooler Cooper Wallace on the line after medicinal cannabis supply problems

Cassie Batten and Rhett Wallace fear for their son Cooper’s health after a break in supply of the medicinal cannabis that keeps him from having seizures. Picture: Hamish Blair

THE health of preschooler Cooper Wallace is delicately poised due to a break in supply of the medicinal cannabis that is keeping him seizure-free.

The four-year-old’s parents Cassie Batten and Rhett Wallace are rationing their remaining batch of cannabis oil in the hope it will last until their preferred supplier’s latest marijuana crop matures in about three weeks.

The Mernda couple said the situation highlighted why the legalisation of the substance was a critical issue.

Legalise cannabis for medical use: top professor

Emeritus Professor David Penington says Australia is behind the times on the medical use of cannabis. Photo: Simon Schluter

The NSW government's clinical trial of medicinal cannabis is inappropriate for patients suffering extreme pain, and the drug should be legally approved for patients diagnosed by doctors, a paper in a top medical journal argues.

"We are behind the times on medical cannabis," writes David Penington, an emeritus professor at Melbourne University, in a paper in the Medical Journal of Australia on Sunday.

"Twenty three states in the US have legalised use of cannabis for medical conditions, as has Canada since 2001. Other countries approving it include Israel, Holland and the Czech Republic."

Dr Penington, a public health and medicinal marijuana advocate, was named the 2014 Victorian of the Year.