About this webinar:

Clinical guidance documents for Australian prescribers of medicinal cannabinoids are becoming outdated due to the rapid expansion of research in cannabinoids as a pain management option.

For over a decade, NDARC has synthesised the evidence on medicinal cannabinoids, beginning with early systematic reviews and advice to the Therapeutic Goods Administration and extending to recent work commissioned by the Department of Veterans' Affairs.

This webinar traces this program, summarising what earlier reviews established, presenting findings from the recent DVA-commissioned work including what the newer evidence does and does not support, and describe how that evidence was developed in collaboration with multidisciplinary expertise and consumer preferences to guide decision-making regarding initiation, monitoring and discontinuation of cannabinoid therapy.

This will be followed by an extended panel Q&A with two members of the Guideline Development Group, a consumer representative and a prescribing clinician, who will discuss the practical realities of medicinal cannabinoid use in Australia.

About the speaker:

Dr Chrianna Bharat is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the School of Population and Global Health, The University of Western Australia, and at the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW Sydney.

An applied biostatistician and epidemiologist, Chrianna's research uses population-linked data to examine the safety and effectiveness of pharmaceutical medicines, alongside evidence synthesis and the evaluation of research methodologies.

She has worked across several medicinal cannabinoid projects, most recently leading NDARC's evidence review commissioned by the Department of Veterans' Affairs, and a 2026 systematic review and meta-analysis of cannabis and cannabinoids for mental and substance use disorders.

About the panellists:

Dr Hester Wilson is the chair of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners' (RACGP) Specific Interest Group in Addiction, the Chief Addiction Specialist for NSW, Clinical Director for Murrumbidgee Local Health District Drug and Alcohol Service and Clinical Advisor to Population and Community Health in South East Sydney Local Health District. Her PhD focused on GPs’ experience of patients with chronic pain and prescription opioid dependence. She is also a Fellow of both the RACGP and the Chapter of Addiction Medicine in the Royal Australasian College of Physicians. A clinician of many years, she is interested in supporting access and quality person-centred care for all.

Lara Shallard has lived experience using medical cannabinoids to manage chronic pain and fibromyalgia, and lived experience caring for her father in his later years, supporting his titration off long-term opioid medications (pethidine, oxycodone, and morphine) with cannabinoids. She is currently undertaking a Bachelor of Psychological Science.