ABC Australia reports
A newly formed group with a vision to offer medicinal cannabis education, advocacy and peer support to nurses has launched this week.
Key points:
- The Australian Cannabis Nurses Association is being publicly launched this week
- Co-founder Simone O’Brien says they want to decrease stigma and increase knowledge about the medication
- It coincides with the inaugural Medicinal Cannabis Awareness Week
Nurse practitioner and medicinal cannabis prescriber, Simone O’Brien, will lead the Australian Cannabis Nurses Association (ACNA) alongside co-founders Deb Ranson and Jodie Davis.
“There’s misinformation about cannabis with clinicians,” Ms O’Brien said.
“We are very keen to decrease the stigma.”
The group wants education about the endocannabinoid system included in undergraduate nursing degrees.
This week marks seven years since the Federal Parliament passed legislation to legalise medicinal cannabis in Australia.
Most cannabis medications are classified as unapproved therapies, which means permission is required from the Commonwealth Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) before a prescription is issued.
Since 2016, the number of prescriptions has skyrocketed from just a handful to well over 100,000 last year.
Read more at
https://www.facebook.com/AustralianSistersofPlantBasedMedicines/
Sean Hocking
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