In Canada, licensed dispensers dispatch neat little packets of cannabis to medicinal users all over the country for as little as $5 a gram. The packets wouldn’t look out of place in a supermarket.

In Australia, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has a very different plan for patients accessing cannabis. The TGA is the Department of Health agency charged with regulation of therapeutic goods, from medicines to sunscreens. Until recently, the Australian government has taken a restrictive approach to creating legal access to medicinal cannabis.

Criminal history checks on doctors and patients should not be used to assess applications to access medical marijuana in Queensland, a parliamentary committee has argued. 

The Health, Communities, Disability Services and Domestic and Family Violence Committee has delivered its report on a bill which would create a formal process for Queensland doctors to prescribe medicinal cannabis.

The Public Health (Medicinal Cannabis) Bill 2016 proposed allowing the chief executive of Queensland Health to request a criminal history report on medical practitioners – and their patients – as part of the decision on whether they were a suitable person to prescribe or receive the drug.

MGC Pharmaceuticals has been collaborating with the University of Sydney Business School community engagement program in the production of a medical cannabis white paper.

The paper, titled Clinical Evidence for Medical Cannabis: Epilepsy, Cancer and Multiple Sclerosis examines existing evidence supporting the efficacy of medical cannabis.

This second collaboration between the two also examines medical cannabis applicability to relieve associated symptoms for a range of health related issues, including pain nausea and loss of appetite.

Whether you smoke, vape or eat it as a cookie, a well-documented side effect of marijuana use is increased hunger.

Also known as "the munchies", the phenomenon is so common it has seeped its way from many a dark, smoky bedroom through to the big screen — inspiring scenes in everything from the films of Cheech and Chong to the Ted series starring Mark Wahlberg.

But despite the humorous depiction of the munchies on film, hunger can be a serious and powerful side effect of cannabis use.

The term "munchies" is said to have been first noted in the famous study on 'being stoned' by Charles T Tart in 1971, in which the mental state of 150 marijuana users was observed.

More recently though, research has focused on the neurological processes behind the munchies.

The father of a dying Brisbane child wants special permission from the Queensland Government to use cannabis oil in hospital.

Steve Peek said doctors had tried every legal medication on his eight-year-old daughter Suli, who has a regressive neurological disorder that causes multiple chronic seizures, but that nothing had worked.

He resorted to cannabis oil 16 months ago to give Suli a better quality of life, and said it had helped control her seizures.

But following a recent virus, Suli now needs palliative care.

Mr Peek has pleaded with the Government to provide him with compassionate access to use the drug in hospital.

"What we need is some sort of approval so if she goes to hospital we can continue using the cannabis oil," he said.

Australian Sex Party MP Fiona Patten has introduced a motion to Victoria's Upper House calling for the legalisation of cannabis for personal use.

Ms Patten argued for the legalisation of the drug to reduce the burden on the courts and generate income through regulation.

She told Parliament about a third of Victorians admit to using, or having used, the drug and in some age groups there were more people smoking marijuana than tobacco.

"I'm probably the only leader of a political party in Victoria who's admitting to occasionally smoking marijuana for personal use," she said.

"I'm kind of guessing that probably about a third of people in this chamber may have at one stage, maybe not inhaled, but may have at one stage tried some cannabis."

Whether you are opposed to their presence of not, legalised cannabis markets are here to stay. 

In April, Pennsylvanina become the 24th state to approve cannabis for medical purposes in the US, while it is already legal to all over-21s in four states and Washington DC. 

In the same month, Germany joined a host of European countries in creating medical cannabis legislation. Further afield, Australia, Uruguay and Brazil announced cannabis programmes last year and Canada is transitioning from a medical regime to a full adult-use market. 

Some suggest the legal cannabis market could reach $50bn in raw cannabis sales within ten years, others suggest figures closer to $300bn.

When Barry and Joy Lambert donated nearly $34 million to the University of Sydney for medicinal cannabis research last year, they were hailed as Australia’s most generous grandparents. 

But there is a very real pain behind their generosity. 

Their four-year-old granddaughter, Katelyn, suffers from Dravet Syndrome, a potentially fatal childhood epilepsy condition. 

Since she was six months old, Katelyn has suffered from agonising, debilitating seizures. One occurred in a hospital emergency room and lasted more than two hours, with doctors powerless to stop it. 

A Canberra naturopath who gave cannabis liquids to his daughter and sold it to terminally ill customers has avoided jail, instead receiving a 12 month suspended sentence.

Ryan Franzi, 39, was arrested after police found cannabis oil and tinctures in his house last year.

In August he admitted to producing and supplying the drug to terminally ill clients of his naturopathy business, and also said he supplied the drug to his teenage daughter.

Medicinal cannabis will become legal, but strictly controlled from November this year, under a formal decision reached by the Therapeutic Goods Administration this week.

The final decision was published on Wednesday, paving the way for the drug to be legalised for medicinal use, as the federal government works towards creating a national regulator.

Clinical trials have shown moderate quality evidence the substance can help treat chronic pain and spasticity and potentially reduce chemotherapy-related nausea.

But it could still be some time before a fully functioning system was in place to ensure patients could access cannabis and cannabis-related drugs to ease their suffering.