1/ You can *not* get CBD over-the-counter at pharmacies in Australia
You won't be able to for at least 1-2 years and possibly never
There has been a lot of misleading news coverage about this which I think is irresponsible and could end up harming people
2/ The TGA has determined that low-dose CBD products, which have been proven through clinical trials to treat specific symptoms at low doses, might be available over-the-counter, once they have gone through an expensive and time consuming drug approval process
3/ There is little evidence that CBD at low doses is effective for treating anything
A small number of companies are in the early stages of planning or running initial clinical trials to further investigate the possibility of clinical efficacy
4/ IF these trials are successful and companies are able to prove efficacy at these very low doses they MIGHT be 1-2 years away at the very earliest from having products on shelves
5/ In the meantime, all this "CBD is now available" and "we know it works" news coverage is going to send thousands of Australians to their pharmacy where they will be told "nope, can't help you" and promptly jump online to buy unregulated CBD instead
6/ Unregulated CBD bought online has no quality or safety controls. Best case scenario, people will be ripped off or end up using CBD without any clinical oversight - worst case, they might accidentally ingest THC or harmful contaminants
7/ When you're reporting on the availability of a new drug you have a responsibility as a journalist to clearly communicate the facts
Buying into the CBD hype to get more clicks is cynical and misleading
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2/ The best part of this analysis is it’s based on proprietary data taken from the largest chain of cannabis clinics in #Australia. So, although the patient access data I publish is more comprehensive, theirs is more precise. Here are the highlights:
3/ Counting active patients in Australia is diff-i-cult. Freshleaf’s definition is anyone seeing a clinic #doctor, receiving a script or receiving a new or replacement approval. My preferred definition is anyone in possession of an active recommendation but here's their graph
2/7 First off, some of you may have already seen me post this a couple of weeks ago, but here are the national figures for SAS-B approvals up to June 2019
3/7 But wait, there's more! We also have updated condition-specific data up to the end of May 2019. Here's the same graph from the article with an additional three months of data