My Weekend at United in Compassion 2023 | AusCannaReviews
This past weekend I attended the United in Compassion symposium, a conference centring around “advocating for patient access to full spectrum herbal medicinal cannabis extracts and dried herb cannabis; in a manner which is safe, effective, affordable, equitable and favourable for patients, for the dignified relief of suffering.”
On the first full day of the symposium, several programs were running simultaneously: nurses, pharmacists, general, and industry. I attended the industry sessions.
The morning started with a Cannabis Production Session. There was much discussion about what adult cannabis use in Australia could look like if we moved towards legalization. A sentiment that most people at the symposium believed would eventually happen.
The session then transitioned into cultivation. It was interesting listening to the different approaches various companies use to stay viable. Some are very hands-on and vertically integrated (meaning they do everything in-house), while others hyper-focus on just the growing, touching the plant as minimally as possible, leaving packaging and distribution to someone else.
The cultivation session also touched on the topic of local vs import and drew similarities to the Aussie automotive industry. A supply and demand issue that begs the question why are there so many more cannabis licences than actual cannabis permits for cultivation, production, and manufacturing? (Forgive me they gave numbers during the presentation but I forgot to write them down.)
The stand out for me during the production session was the Bugs for Bugs presentation, partly because I’ve used their products in my garden but also because I find it fascinating that you can use “good” bugs to keep “bad” bugs in check without the need for pesticides.
The afternoon session for the industry program was Compliance, Regulations and Marketing. These were the sessions I was most interested in, mainly the ODC and TGA regulatory update presentation that included a question time session. Sadly I was epically disappointed, so much so that I didn’t stay for the Marketing Compliance session that was directly after. It was just over 40 minutes of nothing but legal gibberish, passing the buck, and a lot of “we can’t speculate on that…”.
On the last day, I attended the Research and Industry Development Session. There was a lot of good information contained in these sessions, with some of the highlights being the need for more real-world evidence and clinical trials and research that’s being done at Southern Cross University to identify sex expression genes that could result in accredited feminised seed stock for commercial growers.
Overall the symposium was a great experience but it was the people I “vibed” with that made it memorable. I was warmly welcomed into circles that were dominated mainly by men and humbled by how many of them had actually read my reviews. I’m an unknown in these crowds and I hadn’t met anyone face-to-face until this past weekend. I stuck to water the entire time and even though I was offered drinks here and there not once was I ever pressured into having something to drink. As a woman riding solo for the event, it was refreshing.
Hopefully, this is just the beginning as I start working towards possible collaborations while still maintaining my independence and embracing what the future may bring.