Prescriptions Of Some Weed Products Have Quadrupled Since 2019 & Damn My Glaucoma Is Acting Up

prescription cannabis rates australia new data

A recent study has discovered that Aussies getting prescriptions for medicinal cannabis has quadrupled since the last report in 2018. As it turned out, about half of the people getting Choof Scripts™ were aged 24 and under.

New stats have emerged from the third Cannabis as Medicine Survey (CAMS20) which quizzed 1600 Aussies on their cannabis use — and how they get their green — and is the largest ongoing study of its kind in Australia.

Per CAMS20, 37 per cent of participants had gotten a script for legal weed for medicinal purposes between September 2020 and January 2021. It was a massive jump from the 2.7 per cent of scripts recorded in the 2018 version of the survey and The Guardian reported that experts wondered if Aussies are using medicinal Mary Jane for conditions that have minimal evidence about weed’s effectiveness on them.

It’s also reported that the majority of the cannabis scripts have been issued for products that haven’t been approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) for legal supply.

Another study by the University of Melbourne on the rise of prescription cannabis use in Australia found that half of the 277,338 TGA approvals between January 2017 and August 2022 were for Aussies between 18 and 24 years old.

CAMS20 also found a shift towards medicinal marijuana despite it costing more than buying bud through other means. Illicit cannabis use is still king among 62.4 per cent of respondents. But prescription-only use has grown to 13.3 per cent and dual-use (a mix of script and illicit) is preferred by nearly a quarter of those surveyed.

The study also found that prescribed weed was mostly obtained to treat chronic pain while those wanting to treat anxiety and sleep issues were opting for ~illicit avenues~.

Interestingly, 95 per cent of CAMS20‘s participants reported improvements to their main health condition through the use of the devil’s lettuce. Make of that what you will.

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