The involvement of organised criminal groups and the increasing sale of cannabis on social media were also contributing factors.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou no longer need to go to a tinny house; you can just order it online.\u201d<\/p>\n
About 380,000 medicinal cannabis products were supplied in 2025, 200,000 more than when the Medical Cannabis Scheme came into effect in 2020.<\/p>\n
A large majority of these products are supplied by specialist cannabis clinics, with 83% of medicinal cannabis users acquiring their prescription through one.<\/p>\n
Rychert said prescribing practices are likely shaped by the changing dynamics of the industry, online consultations accounting for 75% of medicinal cannabis prescriptions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile the clinics undoubtedly improved access to cannabis-based products for medicinal use, there are also concerns about the lack of continuity of care and separation from regular GP services,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She urged monitoring of the increasing privatisation of cannabis, as THC use is associated with an elevated risk of adverse events and dependency.<\/p>\n
Associate Professor Marta Rychert of the NZ Drug Research Team. Photo \/ NZ Drug Research Team<\/p>\n
Fifty-three % of cannabis users reported they used the drug daily, a 14% increase from 2020 which Rychert found concerning.<\/p>\n
As well as an increase in general usage, the survey found many New Zealanders were favouring alternative forms of cannabis.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere has also never been more choice in terms of the range of cannabis products available, well beyond \u2019buds\u2019 for smoking. Cannabis vapes and edibles are now sold on social media.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rychert said this shift would help reduce the harm to cannabis users\u2019 lungs.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, if these new means of use and products increase the amount and frequency of cannabis they consume, they are increasing the risk of harm, including dependency, cognitive impacts and mental illness.\u201d <\/p>\n
It comes as the number of Kiwis using cannabis mostly – or only – for medicinal reasons increased to 34%.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany medicinal cannabis users report improvements in quality of life and there is some evidence prescribed cannabis may reduce patients\u2019 reliance on other pharmaceuticals with more serious side effects.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, Rychert said further study of cannabis\u2019 efficacy in managing medical conditions was still needed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also need to understand patient experiences and health outcomes from the new online clinics, and how they compare to medicinal cannabis prescribing by GPs.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The involvement of organised criminal groups and the increasing sale of cannabis on social media were also contributing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401961,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2840,95,12889,19796,6726,138,17285,6434,29384,1874,23855,51928,807,99132,130,117,111,139,69,829,12937,1517,8822,6306,3382],"class_list":["post-401960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-across","tag-and","tag-aotearoa","tag-available","tag-become","tag-business","tag-cannabis","tag-cheaper","tag-decline","tag-found","tag-frequent","tag-increasingly","tag-kiwis","tag-medicinal","tag-more","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-prescriptions","tag-prices","tag-reveals","tag-survey","tag-use","tag-using"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}