Despite legalization in 2016, Australian patients face practitioner reluctance to prescribe, high costs, and product supply issues that drive many to unregulated cannabis sources.
Health policymakers, medical cannabis advocates, practitioners considering prescribing cannabis, and patients navigating access barriers.
What the researchers found
Three primary barriers emerged: healthcare practitioners' reluctance to prescribe, high costs disproportionately affecting low-income patients, and dependence on imported products causing shortages and substitution costs. Patients showed resilience by self-educating, planning, and forming support networks, but many turned to illicit markets.
Why it matters
When legal medical cannabis programs fail patients through cost and access barriers, they create a perverse incentive to use unregulated products that lack quality control and carry legal risk. Policy reform requires understanding these ground-level barriers.
The numbers in context
60 submissions analyzed (44 patients, 16 caregivers). Three primary barriers identified. Patients turned to illicit markets due to cost and access issues.
How the study worked
Qualitative analysis of 60 consumer submissions (44 patients, 16 caregivers/family) to a government senate inquiry. Coded using NVivo 12 and analyzed through a consumer vulnerability framework.
What this study cannot tell us
Consumer submissions to a government inquiry may overrepresent frustrated patients. No quantification of how many patients use illicit cannabis. Submissions reflect patient perspectives, not objective measurement of barrier severity.
How to read the evidence
Qualitative analysis of government inquiry submissions provides authentic patient voices but represents a self-selected sample with likely negative bias.
When this study was published
2025 publication analyzing submissions from a post-2016 senate inquiry.
The bigger picture
Australia's experience mirrors problems seen in other medical cannabis markets where legalization without adequate implementation creates a two-tier system: those who can afford regulated products and those forced into unregulated markets.
Questions still open
- Would government subsidies for medical cannabis reduce reliance on illicit markets?
- How do other countries address practitioner reluctance to prescribe cannabis?
Common questions
Why are Australian doctors reluctant to prescribe medicinal cannabis?
Why is medicinal cannabis expensive in Australia?
Read the original research
Medicinal Cannabis and Consumer Vulnerability in Australia: A Nexus of Policy and Market Factors.
Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy, 28(1), e70176
Citation
Gething, Katrina; Erku, Daniel; Scuffham, Paul. (2025). Medicinal Cannabis and Consumer Vulnerability in Australia: A Nexus of Policy and Market Factors.. Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy, 28(1), e70176. https://doi.org/10.1111/hex.70176
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