Australian medicinal cannabis growers want imports to be tested and their producers held to domestic standards.There are calls for tighter regulations and more rigorous testing for the 1.2 million Australians who have used medicinal cannabis.
He felt deceived when he discovered that the cannabis he relies on may not necessarily be grown in Australia or subject to stringent Australian regulations. But under rules enforced by the Therapeutic Goods Administration , medicinal cannabis products sold to Australian consumers can be grown anywhere in the world.It is up to the cannabis importer to ensure production standards laid out under the Therapeutic Goods Act are met, but the cannabis may not be subjected to the same level of testing."Every man and his dog is bringing flower into Australia," she said.
He says his companies reject poor quality products and refuse to accept products unless they have been tested in independent labs and comply with Australian standards."There are many other very serious breaches of advertising, selling and marketing regulations surrounding schedule 8 medicines and unregistered medicines," Mr Comerford said.
"We have not conducted any testing of imported medicinal cannabis products in the last 12 months," a spokesperson said in a statement to the ABC."We're certainly hearing stories about quality issues and adverse responses, and that should trigger concern in the community," Australian Medical Association president Steve Robson said.He said doctors did not have enough information about the quality of cannabis or how rigorously it was tested.
Now Cann Group is trying to offload its Mildura site to recoup funds and outgoing chief executive Peter Koetsier says the competition from unregulated cannabis imports is partly to blame.Mr Koetsier said he had been urging government to change the regulatory framework to require imported products were tested to ensure they met Australian standards.