Medical cannabis will eventually be legalised in Australia and opposition is based on "faith, not logic", the chairman of a business granted permission to grow crops on Norfolk Island has said.

Former West Australian Liberal MP Mal Washer, who is a GP and chairman of a Perth-based company which has just been granted permission to grow medical marijuana on Norfolk Island for export to Canada, said the growing operation would be closely monitored.

The company had previously sought permission to grow cannabis in Tasmania but encountered too much opposition.

The Federal Government has ordered an urgent review after a licence was granted to grow a commercial crop of marijuana on Australian soil.

The AusCann group announced plans to cultivate the drug on Norfolk Island and export medicinal cannabis to Canada, where doctors can grant approval for patients to purchase cannabis from licensed producers.

AusCann have been granted a growers licence by the parliament of Norfolk Island. Last year, a similar licence was vetoed by the Federal Government.

Norfolk Island is a self-governing territory more than 1000km from the Australian mainland.

It has a population of just over 2000 and covers an area of 34 square kilometres.

An Australian company is about to start growing and exporting medicinal cannabis from the self-governing Australian territory of Norfolk Island.

AusCann Group Holdings has struck a landmark deal with the Norfolk Island government to grow a high-grade medicinal strain of cannabis from November. It intends to export its entire first crop to Canada by the middle of next year.

An initial one tonne of cannabis will be grown from a protected two-hectare site with production forecast to increase to 10 tonnes by 2018.

It will supply the sativa and sativa-dominant strains, which are unsuitable for growing in Canada’s indoor facilities.

Hobart's Museum of Old and New Art has defended its promotion of an idea to medicate children with marijuana in a bid to improve Tasmania's education outcomes.

MONA creative director Leigh Carmichael described an idea from teaching artist Leon Ewing to supply marijuana to students in a controlled and moderated manner as "brave and creative".

"We don't necessarily agree with this idea, but we love that it's brave and creative, and in order for seismic change, we'll need to think big and be open to provocative ideas," Mr Carmichael said on Tuesday.

For three days in June, MONA will - as part of its annual winter event Dark Mofo - host a festival of ideas on how to improve education levels in Tasmania, which are among Australia's poorest.

Considering that up until about 85 years ago, cannabis oil was used around the world to treat a variety of diseases, including cancer, it is not surprising that the phasing out of cannabis to treat illness coincided with the rise of pharmaceutical companies.

Rick Simpson, a medical marijuana activist, is on a crusade to help others heal. He regards cannabis as the most medicinally active plant on the face of the earth, and shared this apparent miracle with others — completely free of charge. He now has thousands of testimonials from those who were healed from ‘incurable’ disease to back up his claims ~ that cannabis annihilates cancer.

Medical marijuana is illegal in Australia but Queensland and Victoria have joined New South Wales in a $9 million trial of cannabis oil for patients suffering epilepsy, end-of-life pain and chemotherapy-related nausea. Photo: supplied

The case against a Queensland man accused of treating his cancer-stricken toddler with cannabis oil has been delayed, awaiting testimony from doctors.

The prosecution is waiting on statements from two doctors at the Lady Cilento Children's Hospital, where the man was arrested on January 2.

His two-year-old daughter was receiving treatment for stage 4 neuroblastoma inside and in an attempt to treat chemotherapy-related nausea police allege he was putting cannabis oil into her food.

Capital Mining (ASX:CMY) is in the process of acquiring a number of medicinal cannabis and hemp businesses in Australia and North America.

The company has now been granted an ASX trading halt pending completion of renegotiated acquisition terms. 
This will last until the earlier of the announcement being made or the start of trade on Tuesday, 19th May 2015.

Authorities made more than 110,000 drug arrests in the 2013-14 financial year and seized 27 tonnes of illicit substances

More drugs have been seized than at any other time in Australia and authorities make a narcotics-related arrest an average of once every five minutes, a new report by the Australian Crime Commission (ACC) has said.

The illicit drug report pulls together data from state and territory police units, as well as the Australian federal police (AFP) and the Customs and Border Protection Service.

It finds authorities made more than 110,000 drug arrests in the 2013-14 financial year and seized a record 27 tonnes of illicit substances.

More Australians are taking illicit drugs than are Britons on average, but people in Britain are still smoking tobacco and abusing alcohol in higher numbers, a University of Adelaide report has found.

And while Australians were more likely to drink alcohol, they were less likely to have a drinking problem than Americans or Britons, the research based on global data found.

About 3.7 per cent of Australians were considered to have an alcohol use disorder, compared with 12.1 per cent in the United Kingdom and 7.8 per cent in the United States.

When it came to illicit drugs such as cannabis, ecstasy and opioid-type drugs (medications such as codeine and morphine), however, a higher percentage of Australians indulged.

International Goldfields (ASX:IGS) is firmly on the road to gaining a dominant position in the legal cannabis market of Uruguay with a binding agreement to acquire an 85% interest in local Winter Garden Biosciences.

Uruguay recently became the first nation in the world to fully legalise under its federal regulatory system the research & development, as well as cultivation, distribution, sale and consumption of non-synthetic cannabinoids and hemp.