New Zealand's Easier Access to Medicinal Cannabis: What You Need to Know

CBD moving to Pharmacist only brings New Zealand into line with Australia

New Zealand has taken a significant step towards making medicinal cannabis more accessible to the public. Medsafe, New Zealand's medical regulatory authority, recently reclassified cannabidiol (CBD) from a prescription-only medicine to a restricted (pharmacist-only) medicine. This change aligns New Zealand's approach with Australia, which made a similar move in December 2020.

CBD is a cannabinoid that naturally occurs in the Cannabis sativa L. plant. CBD has little-to-no psychoactive effects. CBD was previously classified as a prescription-only medicine. The new classification of CBD is as follows.

Prescription: except when elsewhere in the schedule.

Restricted (Pharmacist-only): when supplied, in medicines with dosing instructions for 150 milligrams or less per day and containing not more than 4.5 grams, when sold in the manufacturer’s original pack that has received consent from the Minister or Director-General, for adults aged 18 years and over, by a registered pharmacist.

While on its face this change could be seen as good for increasing patient access to medicinal cannabis medications, the reality is that no CBD products are currently approved in New Zealand or Australia and any approvals are likely years away.

This is because supply currently of all medicinal cannabis products is via the Medicinal Cannabis Scheme which allow products to be prescribed by doctors providing they have been shown to meet a minimum quality standard.

On the other hand regular medicines, even ones you can get from the pharmacy without a prescription, must undergo rigorous testing to show their efficacy and safety. This costs money and time, considerable amounts of both. In addition the new changes are for a maximum daily dose of 150mg which may be too low for clinical benefit in some indications.

For its part, Medsafe says it “welcomes applications for low-dose CBD containing medicines, provided they meet the New Zealand regulatory guidelines for approval of new medicines.”