THERE are better ways to improve patient access to cannabidiol (CBD) products than down-scheduling certain products, an authorised GP prescriber of medicinal cannabis believes.
Speaking with the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners' (RACGP) NewsGP publication, Dr Vicki Kotsirilos, questioned the interim decision to amend the Poisons Standard to allow pharmacists to provide CBD products in over-the-counter oral, oral mucosal and sublingual formulations for therapeutic use in daily doses of 60mg or less (PD 10 Sep).
"The GP knows the patient well, their medical history, and is ideally suited to monitor the patient for clinical responses to the CBD product, watch for interactions with other medication and report any side effects to the Adverse Drug Reaction Advisory Committee," she said.
"How can pharmacists be in a position to determine when it is appropriate to dispense CBD and monitor the clinical responses of CBD for these conditions?
"A better system would be to provide our patients an S4 script without the need to make a SAS Catergory B application...through the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), which is still quite an onerous process."
While the delegate of the Secretary of the Department of Health's interim decision has backed Pharmacist-Only CBD, it ruled that it was "unsuitable for general sales".
A final decision on the scheduling of CBD is expected to be announced on 25 Nov, with a consultation process running until 13 Oct.
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