By Samantha Dick
In Australia, it is illegal to buy and use cannabis simply to ‘get high’.
However, some people with medical conditions, such as epilepsy or multiple sclerosis, can be prescribed medicinal cannabis by a doctor as a way to help relieve their symptoms.
Some people suffering from chronic or terminal illnesses have even found that medicinal cannabis is more effective than conventional medicines.
Victoria was the first state to legalise medicinal cannabis to help treat children with severe epilepsy in 2017.
Medicinal cannabis usually takes the form of an oil or a spray, while recreational cannabis is usually smoked or eaten in food such as brownies.
Australia is divided over whether or not to legalise cannabis for personal use.
Reason Party leader Fiona Patten said legalising cannabis was the “obvious answer” to keeping the drug out of the hands of criminals and children.
“Legalising it is about regulation, so we can control what is sold, who sells it, who manufactures it and who buys it,” Ms Patten told The New Daily.
“It is difficult for people to move on from the ‘war on drugs’ and the notion that controlling the drug industry means prohibiting it, but we know that strategy has not controlled the drug industry at all.”
