As the Tasmanian Government prepares to spend almost $4 million on a controlled access scheme for medicinal cannabis, some people who already use the drug have raised concerns about the scheme's effectiveness.

The tightly-controlled regulation will mean some Tasmanian patients with severe epilepsy will be able to obtain medicinal cannabis from hospital pharmacies, but there are concerns it will not be affordable for those who need it.

John Reeves already takes medicinal cannabis to relieve his chronic pain and he runs a support group for others doing the same.

The State Government will 'fast track' the availability of medicinal cannabis for people in pain, the terminally ill and those suffering a chronic condition.

Premier Mark McGowan and Health Minister Roger Cook will convene a meeting of medical leaders in June to discuss the best way forward to encourage doctors to prescribe the drug.

Students of Australia's first medicinal cannabis course will learn everything there is to know about the plant, short of ingesting the thing.

There won't be any visits to secret cultivation facilities, but architects of the new eight-week course at Deakin University will teach best-practice in growing, extracting and manufacturing medicinal cannabis in Australia.

Cannabis can be used as part of harm reduction techniques for treating severe addiction to other drugs. Thus, a coke or a heroin addict can be healed over time using marijuana. Harm reduction is a strategy wherein addicts are treated with acceptance rather than abstinence. The strategy involves a friendlier and a less disciplined approach to reduce drug use in people who are simply unwilling to quit.

A TASMANIAN poppy processor is set to become a major cannabis producer as well through a partnership to cultivate the crop and make medicinal cannabis products at its processing facility at Westbury.

Medicinal cannabis producer AusCann will tell the Australian Stock Exchange this morning that it has joined forces with Tasmania Alkaloids — which produces 40 per cent of the world’s opiate stock — to produce a local cannabis crop and manufacture products for the Australian and international markets.

AusCann secured a cultivating licence from the Office of Drug Control last week.

It now needs to secure a Tasmanian licence to cultivate and manufacture medicinal cannabis. If successful, it will be the second company to do so.

The decision to include Port Macquarie Base Hospital in a trial of medicinal cannabis has met with a strongly favourable response.

The trial will include some 80 people and will focus on patients who are suffering from chemotherapy-induced nausea or vomiting.

The year-long trial will get underway shortly.

While there is mainly positive reaction to the decision to broaden the trial from two hospitals to a total of nine hospitals around the state, some sections of the community are concerned the trial is too little too late.

“First-mover advantage.” Why Canadian weed producers will dominate the global marijuana market.

In marketing strategy, there’s a term called “first-mover advantage”. It’s when a few key players in a particular industry gain an advantage because they entered into the marketplace first. These companies are able to establish strong brand recognition, shore up the best sources of funding, and build a loyal customer base simply because there aren’t any competitors in the way during their first few years of operation. 

Another bitter dispute about medical marijuana erupted in parliament late on Thursday, with Labor and the Greens pitted against the government and One Nation over a plan to reduce barriers to importing cannabis into Australia.

It's an issue that divides society - to smoke or not to smoke.

Throughout the world, a number of countries are slowing changing their laws around medicinal and recreational cannabis use. New Zealand's laws have stayed relatively the same for some time, with the exception of cannabis based products now being approved for use, but still tightly controlled.

So, which countries are leading the way in this area, and where can you use it either for fun, or for well-being?

Here in New Zealand, cannabis remains illegal to possess, and illegal to grow.

Medicinal use is tightly controlled but can be granted by the Ministry of Health.

Across the ditch it's a similar story.

THE NSW Government will expanding the medicinal cannabis trial for chemotherapy patients to seven more hospitals across NSW – including to Port Macquarie Base and Coffs Harbour health campuses.

A number of cannabis products have recently been imported from overseas in the hope of helping some of our sickest patients, removing a major barrier to accessing medicinal cannabis.