United In Compassion’s 2019 Medical Cannabis Symposium will again help raise awareness and educate on issues surrounding the medicinal use of cannabis in Australia.
United In Compassion (UIC) advocates for equitable access to safe, effective and affordable full spectrum herbal medicinal cannabis as well as dried plant material.
Heading the organisation is Lucy Haslam, whom we’ve mentioned quite often here on HempGazette. Lucy, a retired nurse, launched a campaign in 2013 to reintroduce medicinal cannabis to Australia after seeing the positive impact it had in providing relief for her son Dan, who was suffering stage 4 bowel cancer. Sadly, Dan passed away, but Lucy’s battle continued and has resulted in change – but not enough.
2019 will mark the third year of Australia’s medical cannabis program – such as it is. Patient participation is still very low and it’s little wonder. The application process is confusing, time-consuming and there’s little in the way of solid and well-balanced clinical guidance. This discourages both doctors and patients from pursuing “legal” medical cannabis options.
“Many doctors even recommend their patients continue to use unregulated products rather than attempting the legal route – UIC views this as an unacceptable state of affairs,” states the organisation. “Australians are still forced to rely on the illicit market to obtain what may very well be life-saving medicines while medicos remain confused about how and whether to prescribe.”
The UIC 2019 Medical Cannabis Symposium will help address some of these issues by again showcasing research from both home and abroad, plus advocating to ensure human rights are firmly back on political, regulatory and clinical agendas.
The Symposium will be held 22-24 March 2019 in Tweed Heads, New South Wales. Speakers are yet to be announced, but if previous years are any indication it will be a very successful and informative event.
In the lead-up, UIC is calling for sponsors for the Symposium.
“We invite sponsors who care about patient needs and who want to see access in Australia opened up sooner rather than later.”
Interested parties can contact United In Compassion here or Lucy directly on 0409 16 5889, or via lucy.haslam@uic.org.au. Further details regarding the event will be posted here.
United in Compassion has gained the support of various high-profile Australians, including Olivia Newton-John, Dick Smith, former NSW Premier Mike Baird and John Williamson.
