Australia’s medicinal cannabis industry has been in the news after the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) decided they needed to remind prescribers and dispensers of their responsibility to abide by AHPRA’s official Professional Guidelines. Many of the issues identified by AHPRA come from blurring the boundary between medicinal and non-medicinal use. Legalising non-medicinal use would remove the incentive for medicinal providers to serve the non-medicinal market.

Users News investigates the interaction between weed and psychedelics, diving into the scientific research and chatting to peers.

Trippy edibles are rising in popularity. Users News gives the lowdown on legal and illegal plant-based highs and the dangers of sourcing these treats from online sellers.

There’s a lot of reasons people decide to quit using cannabis. You might be smoking up every day, spending more time or money on it than you want to, or be worried about the very real health harms that can come with chronic cannabis use. Cannabis harm reduction is one way to make sure you’re not doing yourself a disservice – it might include cutting down the amount you’re using, seeking treatment, or making use of some savvy tips that will help you keep it together and stay healthy when smoking (especially for daily smokers).

Time to be honest – while many Australians smoke cannabis occasionally or regularly, chronic and everyday smoking can cause a range of health and social problems that together can be known as Cannabis Use Disorder. The CBD-CUD study is a new study looking at treatment of cannabis use disorder. Led by the University of Sydney and rolling out across sites in Sydney, Newcastle and Melbourne, the study focuses on whether CBD (in combination with counselling) can help people with cannabis use disorder reduce their cannabis use.

It is Australia’s most popular illicit drug and probably the most popular drug worldwide. Can you overdose from it? The short answer is yes, you can, but not fatally: cannabis alone will not kill you. But how much is too much?

Dr Karen Hitchcock is one of Australia’s first authorised prescribers of medicinal cannabis and a supporter of its benefits. She recently spoke at the “Garden States” conference, run by Entheogenesis Australis (EGA), where she outlined how the medicinal cannabis world has changed over the last 4 years. She busted some old myths like “If you don’t have multiple sclerosis (MS) or epilepsy, you can't get prescribed cannabis”, “Only a few doctors in Australia can prescribe”, “There’s only a couple of cannabis oils that can be prescribed.” The following is based on her informative and insightful responses at a Q&A at the conference.

When you’re beginning your journey of drug use, it is easy to get a bit overenthusiastic and end up lost, especially when you don’t have any elders around to help guide you. Akshay spent a lot of time worrying that cannabis and LSD had given him drug-induced anxiety, depersonalisation and psychosis, but he eventually realised that the people who were trying to help him held some negative attitudes towards drugs, and he needed a more supportive — and experienced — community around him.

Post-election Interview with Bernie Bradley, Queensland Legalise Cannabis Party

“I was so run down all the time, drugs were the only way to give me energy and improve my mood”

Parenting is tricky. Scott is a dad who uses drugs. He tells us about the ups and downs of fatherhood, including his experience giving harm reduction advice to his son.

Article, and original research, by Dale

Peers share their experiences vaping cannabis

Uh oh – you’ve been caught with drugs in your possession at a festival in NSW. What happens next depends on a few things…

Regardless of whether we’ve done something wrong, none of us like dealing the police. When stopped by the police, it can be difficult to know what you should do, which is why it’s important to know what your rights are when dealing with the police