Victoria is set to become the first state in Australia to legalise cannabis for medical use.

In a controversial plan, the Andrews government is taking steps to make the drug available for terminally ill people.

While many are welcoming the move, others are deeply sceptical, calling for more research into the long-term effects of medicinal cannabis use.

In a national first, the use of medicinal cannabis could soon be legal in Victoria.

The state government has announced plans to embark on what it says is Australia's first-ever cannabis cultivation trial.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews is delivering on an election commitment to make medicinal cannabis available for terminally ill people.

A Tasmanian mother illegally using medicinal cannabis has ruled out participating in the New South Wales trial of the drug.

The Tasmanian Government is finalising its involvement in the trial and has offered to supply participants from the state.

However, that could prove difficult, with some parents who use the drug to treat their seriously ill children refusing to put them at risk.

Hobart mother Nicole Cowles treats her nine-year-old daughter Alice's life-threatening seizures with cannabis oil, even though it is illegal.

She will not allow her to be part of the trial.

“Before the cannabis oil I obviously didn’t go to school very often, and just walking from our lounge room to my bedroom was a struggle,” said Tabetha.

“I would just walk around, get a little bit tired, and not really play that much,” said Georgia-Grace, who experienced  fatigue. “I’d sit on the couch and watch TV all day.”

Both were put on heavy doses of corticosteroids to keep the inflammation down and hooked up to oxygen tanks 24 hours a day.

While the steroids appeared to be the girls’ only option, Bobby-Jo said the drugs started causing even worse side effects for Tabetha.

A Mernda family is relieved medicinal cannabis will be grown and sold in Victoria within the next two years.

Cassie Batten and Rhett Wallace’s four-year-old son Cooper has severe brain damage, cerebral abscesses, hydrocephalus, epilepsy and cerebral palsy and suffers from daily seizures unless administered with cannabis oil.

Ms Batten said she was overjoyed the state government would legalise access to locally manufactured medicinal cannabis for “exceptional circumstances” as early as 2017.

Children suffering severe epilepsy will be among the first to be treated using a range of non-smokable marijuana products including oils, sprays and vaporisers.

Legislation will be introduced by the end of the year establishing the Office of Medicinal Cannabis which will oversee research, development and the dispensing of marijuana products.

The move comes after the Victorian Law Reform handed down 42 recommendations on August 31, including how to dispense the drug through pharmacies to patients who have been prescribed treatment by a medical specialist.

Locally-grown medicinal cannabis will be legalised in Victoria, under a controversial State Government move to ease the suffering of people with serious medical conditions.

In an Australian first, the Andrews Government plans to embark on a state-based cannabis cultivation trial, based on the recommendations of a report by the Victorian Law Reform Commission.

But the move will need the support of the Federal Government, which is a signatory to an international convention on narcotic drugs.

Nearly 100,000 NSW residents each year will be subjected to roadside drug testing that police admit does not look for drugs that are still active in a person's system and critics say is about mass punishment of drug users, not road safety.

Documents obtained by the NSW Greens under freedom of information laws show there is no lower limit of drugs that are detectable in the saliva of people subjected to the roadside oral drug tests, and no proof the tests are effective in preventing crashes.

The offence of driving "with the presence of cannabis, speed/ice or MDMA/ecstasy in oral fluid" is separate to the charge of driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and police operating procedures reveal the tests do not imply a person is impaired by their drug use. 

Banned doctor and cannabis oil producer Andrew Katelaris is definitely not a crowd-pleaser.

Katelaris, who was de-registered in 2005 for supplying medicinal cannabis to his patients, has dedicated his life to advocating the medical benefits of the plant.

"My signature method is using a specific type of cannabis called cannabidiol or CBD that is believed to have very superior anti-convulsion properties to treat children with epilepsy and patients with chronic pain," Katelaris told Neos Kosmos.

With desperate families turning to him when traditional treatments fail, the controversial physician says children with intractable diseases have benefited from his alternative prescriptions.

It is absolutely absurd that there is no legal level of THC allowable by law in the saliva or the bloodstream when driving – as there is with that much more dangerous drug, alcohol.

Even the slightest trace of THC – which I’m told can be detected from a smoke many hours, days or even a week previously – will get you convicted of Driving Under the Influence.

You’ll lose your licence, perhaps your job, get fined, and perhaps even face gaol time.

And in the absence of an allowable level, there should be an impairment test for people who test positive for THC in their systems, if they’re picked up in a random roadside test without having driven erratically or broken any road laws.

A 56-YEAR-OLD man who farmed marijuana as well as cattle on his property south-west of Gin Gin has avoided spending time behind bars.

But in a bizarre twist, the court was told $5000 in cash disappeared during the police search of the farm earlier this year.

New Moonta man Michael Patrick McGuire pleaded guilty in Bundaberg District Court to using a 70m x 90m plot on his large rural property to grow 46 marijuana plants.

He was sentenced to two years jail but paroled immediately.

Crown prosecutor Katrina Overell said on March 22 police attended McGuire's house with an aerial photo of the property.

McGuire admitted he had $5000 in cash in his kitchen drawer when asked if he had any money to declare.