Australia doctors warn of 'excessive' medical weed prescriptions | News

SYDNEY, Oct 14, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Australia's medical cannabis industry is "excessively" prescribing weed with little oversight and needs urgent regulation, the country's top doctors association and pharmacists warned on Tuesday. Legalised for medical use in 2016, Australians are estimated to have spent up to $500 million on licit pot last year, according to a think tank. But on Tuesday the Australian Medical Association (AMA) and the Pharmacy Guild of Australia said the industry was too often issuing prescriptions without "proper clinical oversight". "Urgent action is needed to ensure medicinal cannabis is prescribed, dispensed and regulated in the same manner as other registered drugs of dependence," AMA President Danielle McMullen said. While acknowledging evidence suggesting medical cannabis can help treat...