Here’s the article as reported by Channel 9 Australia
Claims cannabis suppliers are paying Aussie doctors to prescribe their products to patients
Exclusive: Doctors specialising in medicinal cannabis are being paid by suppliers to prescribe their products to patients, a year-long investigation by A Current Affair has uncovered.
The troubling financial ties between one general practitioner who prescribes cannabis and its producers have been laid bare in a secret audio recording.
Sydney GP Yan Ren — who runs the Flowers of Life clinic — admitted to being paid by a cannabis supplier for prescriptions she wrote for the company’s products.
“Something between 10 to 20 per cent of the products’ (price),” she told a rival supplier during a meeting.
“I’d like to help you in a way as well, too, if we collaborate some way I can help you to write some products as well.
“She claimed the money was “like an educational fee”.
Another company, Humacology — which supplies cannabis — offered doctors $50 for every script they wrote for existing patients, according to an email obtained by A Current Affair.
Humacology denied it offered kickbacks, claiming a change to its cannabis formula meant doctors had to re-write scripts for existing patients and it offered “compensation” to those doctors for a limited time only.
Medical Board of Australia guidelines forbid doctors from accepting money from drug companies that “may affect, or be seen to affect” the way they prescribe or treat patients at any time.
Dr James Stewart, who has won multiple industry awards including the Cannabis Doctor of the Year, said he had been offered money by several major suppliers to prescribe products.
“When you get businessmen coming into healthcare they put profits before patients,” he said.
“60 per cent of us are doing the right thing and there’s the 40 per cent who are doing the wrong thing.
Read more
I have been quietly highlighting this issue for quite some time now so it is good to see the mainstream media picking it up… see more at the links
Australia: Lots of Medicinal Cannabis Prescriptions But No Medicinal Cannabis
Australian Broadcasting Corporation get hold of figures for prescriptions for medicinal cannabis
