Is medicinal cannabis in Australia 'the wild west of medicine'?

Australian experts interviewed 17 Aussie doctors about prescribing medicinal cannabis, and identified four factors that hinder the prescription of cannabis-based treatments. Barriers included: developing the clinical capabilities needed to prescribe, including a lack of knowledge of medicinal cannabis in the healthcare community and a lack of resources to guide prescribing; issues around prescribing an unapproved treatment, including a lengthy prescribing process, high costs of the treatments, and concerns about the legal liability of prescribers; stigma directed at active prescribers by the medical community, including abuse; and a lack of consensus on the benefits or otherwise of medicinal cannabis. One interviewee also identified issues with the emerging industry, including clinics being owned by suppliers and doing backroom 'exclusive' deals with pharmacies, and a lack of transparency about such arrangements. They described the medicinal cannabis industry as "the wild west of medicine at the moment".