False Hope, Real Harm: AHPRA Cracks Down on Cannabis Prescribing
Commentary on AHPRA’s Crackdown on Medicinal Cannabis Prescribing
In response to the ABC article published 9 July 2025
Read the original article here
What’s Happening?
Australia’s medical regulator, AHPRA, has issued a major warning and taken action against 57 health practitioners—GPs, pharmacists and nurses—over inappropriate medicinal cannabis prescribing. Another 60 investigations are underway. The catalyst: a disturbing pattern of high-volume, low-accountability prescribing via online services and telehealth platforms.
The Core Message from AHPRA: This Is Not a Cure-All
AHPRA’s new guidelines draw a clear clinical line in the sand:
“Except for childhood epilepsy, muscle spasms and pain associated with multiple sclerosis, cancer and chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, there is little evidence to support the use of medicinal cannabis.”
This statement is critical. Those four conditions are already covered by four specific cannabis-based medications that underwent rigorous scientific testing, were approved by the TGA and have been listed on Australia’s PBS system for over 20 years. And yet:
Most Australian doctors don’t prescribe them.
Why? Because they’ve made the ethical decision that the cost, poor efficacy and significant side effects simply don’t justify it.
In short, real clinicians are already making evidence-based, patient-first decisions.
A Profitable Illusion?
What we’re seeing now is not a rise in new science—it’s a rise in new sales tactics. The current wave of prescribing—often for conditions like insomnia, anxiety or general pain—is being pushed by a well-funded, well-oiled commercial machine, not by legitimate breakthroughs.
Many of these services are:
Offering telehealth consultations with no long-term care or follow-up
Using questionnaires engineered to approve prescriptions
Targeting vulnerable communities, including veterans and trauma-affected populations
Framing cannabis as a “natural cure-all” while skipping over complex risk profiles and dependency concerns
This is not medicine—it’s marketing. And the cost is being borne by patients who are desperate, misinformed and often left without real care.
Is It Really Health Care?
AHPRA’s action asks us to consider:
Is this prescribing about healing or is it just recreational access by stealth—dressed up as treatment, but stripped of accountability?
The scale of what’s been uncovered is sobering:
One doctor reportedly issued 17,000 prescriptions in six months—one every four minutes.
AHPRA has received over 400 notifications since 2019, including cases of mental health deterioration, addiction and even death.
When patient safety takes a back seat to commercial throughput, the system is broken.
Final Thoughts
The regulator’s new guidelines—including mandatory assessment, documentation, exit plans and evidence-backed justification—are not only welcome, they are urgent.
But guidance alone isn’t enough.
What’s needed now is:
Enforcement—swift and visible
Transparency—around prescribing data and telehealth operations
Ethical courage—from practitioners to push back against convenience-based models and misinformation
Because at its heart, this issue is about trust. Patients trust that what they’re being offered is real care. AHPRA’s findings suggest that in too many cases, that trust has been exploited.
It’s time to reset the conversation:
Medicinal cannabis is not a magic solution. And we owe it to the most vulnerable not to let profit, hype and false hope do the talking.
About NotEvenOnce Projects
NotEvenOnce Projects is a national alcohol and other drug (AOD) education initiative proudly developed by Teen Challenge Tasmania, a member of Global Teen Challenge, an organisation with decades of experience working with individuals facing life-controlling addictions. Grounded in real-world understanding and frontline experience, NotEvenOnce delivers engaging, evidence-informed education to help young people make informed, healthy choices. Backed by Teen Challenge’s broader mission of prevention and transformation, the program connects education with lived experience to break cycles of addiction before they begin.