Australian GPs are sending sick and dying patients to black market suppliers of medicinal cannabis because prescribing it legally falls into the too hard basket, Nine.com.au has learned.

There are hundreds of "compassionate suppliers" dotted around Australia - most covert, but some openly – giving cannabis oil away for free, Craig Goodwin told Nine.com.au.

Goodwin, aged 52, a father-of-four and a deacon at his local church on the central NSW coast, has been arrested three times and spent 10 months in a maximum security prison for supplying cannabis oil to people dying of cancer, including young children with brain tumours.

He claimed that GPs are telling Australians of all ages, suffering from cancer, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, tremors and chronic pain, to seek out suppliers like him.

Goodwin also believed federal and state governments could soon be facing a critical showdown, where compassionate suppliers form co-op cannabis farms and start growing marijuana plants in plain sight, regardless of breaking Australian law.

"The GPs are all in fear of the AMA [Australian Medical Association]," Goodwin told Nine.com.au, despite medicinal cannabis being legalised by the federal government in November last year.

"This is all still a big no go area for general practitioners at the moment. I think it's just easier for them legally, and as far as their job is concerned, to just sort of say if you can get someone in the [medicinal cannabis] community to help then go for it."

Like other medicinal cannabis patients and campaigners spoken to by Nine.com.au, Goodwin described "so many roadblocks" and a weight of paperwork strangling access to the medicine.

Craig Goodwin and Jenny Hallam. Ms Hallam is a compassionate supplier of medicinal cannabis and was raided by police in January 2017. Source: Supplied

Jenny Hallam, one of the highest profile compassionate suppliers in the country, was raided by South Australian police in January.

Hallam, a 44-year-old from Adelaide, supplies about 200 patients, some who are dying.

She is gravely concerned for their health and well-being after her operation was shut down just weeks after a similar police raid on a large compassionate supplier based in Newcastle.

She also told Nine.com.au that it was very common for people to contact her on instruction from their local GP.

One doctor in Queensland even regularly ordered cannabis oil from her to treat his own illness, Hallam said.

"Often once [GPs] realise there is nothing else they can do for their patients - pharmaceutical or other treatments - then they will often suggest they try medicinal cannabis."

Hallam was suspicious of the Turnbull government's "dodgy promises" around the legalisation of medicinal cannabis.

If the government was serious about making medicinal cannabis available to Australians, then GPs and pharmacists would have been educated about cannabis oil and the prescription process, Hallam said. She claimed that GPs and pharmacists were currently in the dark.

Nine.com.au has contacted the Department of Health to confirm what medicinal cannabis educational programs have been rolled out for frontline health professionals, but at the time of publication is yet to receive a reply.

Craig Goodwin speaks at a medicinal cannabis rally in Canberra on February 8. Campaigners met with politicians Pauline Hanson and Derryn Hinch, raising their concerns about access to medicine. Source: Supplied

"The doctors really don't know much about this at all," Goodwin added. "They're being informed by their patients."

NSW father Goodwin is currently on a two-year good behaviour bond from the courts and will be thrown in jail for several years if he is caught growing cannabis again in 2017.

For now, he is directing people who contact him to his network of fellow compassionate suppliers.

The demand, he said, is growing.

"We deal with the human face of all these people," he said.

"When you've got parents standing in front of you begging you to help them save their dying child … and then when your medicine is stolen and that child ends up dying, it affects you."

Goodwin was arrested in February 2013, November 2013 and February 2015.

After his second arrest, he was sent to Campsie Prison in NSW – "a scary time" for him and an incredibly difficult period for his wife and four children.

"It was the first time I'd ever been in jail. It was a big shock but it just made me even more determined. I feel what I am doing is morally right."

"I feel this is my Christian duty to do what I do because I know that this stuff works."

Goodwin became a compassionate supplier after he claimed to have cured his own terminal cancer with medicinal cannabis.

After being diagnosed with terminal liver cancer in 2012, he returned home with his wife and Googled "cures for cancer".

Peer-reviewed studies have documented that cannabis shows evidence of anti-cancer properties.

Cancer Research Australia told Nine.com.au it was not in a position to comment on these studies.

However, British counterparts, Cancer Research UK have acknowledged the validity of the research but cautioned that success had so far only been documented in a laboratory environment – not in human trials.

Goodwin described "saturating" his body with cannabis. He took cannabis oil morning, noon and night, and also began juicing raw cannabis plant smoothies every day.

In 2013, Goodwin said scans revealed his liver was free of cancer, and he has been in remission since.

When he was sent to prison for 10 months, Goodwin was in the midst of supplying medicinal cannabis to three terminal cancer patients, including two children with brain tumours.

Tragically, those two children are now dead, while the other man is alive and in remission, Goodwin claimed.

When his two-year bond with the courts expires, Goodwin said he will start supplying medicinal cannabis again, and risk further imprisonment, if the government has not been able to deliver better access for those in need.

"[Compassionate suppliers] are still being raided. We're still be treated like common criminals. And this is not what it's about, it's all about trying to help our fellow Australians through this terrible time in their life."

UPDATE: After publication a federal Department of Health spokeswoman issued the following statement:

Whilst the national cultivation and manufacture scheme for medicinal cannabis is being implemented in Australia, the Government supports mechanisms for safe and timely access to imported medicinal cannabis products of known composition and quality, under appropriate supervision.

We do not support people using black-market, unregulated crop.

Patients can currently access medicinal cannabis and medicinal cannabis products by a doctor who has become an Authorised Prescriber or through the Special Access Scheme (SAS) B process.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) is undertaking a number of initiatives to improve information available to doctors about the evidence relating to medicinal cannabis and the processes to access it in Australia. These initiatives include: reworking information on its website to provide simple guidance on the application process and to publicise the existing 1800 number for any clinicians who require personalised advice.

The TGA is also working with clinical colleges and states and territories to provide clinicians with more information on the clinical evidence available to assist them in prescribing medicinal cannabis, and is supporting the development of prescribing guidance for different conditions.