Scheduling

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SOURCE: Email response from, The National Drugs and Poisons Scheduling Committee

 

Regarding cannabis and cannabis products

 

The National Drugs and Poisons Scheduling Committee (NDPSC) is responsible for the scheduling of drugs and poisons, at the Commonwealth Government level. The NDPSC is a statutory committee established under the Therapeutic Goods Act 1989 and is responsible for determining the classification or scheduling of medicines, as well as agricultural, veterinary and domestic chemicals in Australia.

 

The NDPSC’s authority is described in the Therapeutic Goods Act 1989. However, while the work of the NDPSC is conducted under that Act, the NDPSC Secretariat is part of the Department of Health and Ageing. The NDPSC is not part of the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), nor is the TGA responsible for the scheduling of drugs and poisons.

 

The circumstances under which individual medicines are made accessible to consumers are determined through the NDPSC’s classification process, known as scheduling. The Standard for the Uniform Scheduling of Drugs and Poisons (SUSDP) sets out this schedule and is available on the NDPSC website at http://www.tga.gov.au/ndpsc/index.htm. These recommendations are given legal effect through State and Territory legislation. The methods by which the NDPSC’s scheduling decisions are implemented may vary between jurisdictions, as each State and Territory determines its own legislation.

 

The SUSDP refers to cannabis in Schedule 9 (prohibited substances), except when separately mentioned in other Schedules, or if it is hemp fibre containing 0.01 per cent or less of tetrahydrocannabinol and products manufactured from such fibre. Therefore hemp that is produced for its fibre contains less than 0.01per cent (tetrahydrocannabinol) and is specifically described to exempt it from Schedule 9. Not all cannabis-derived substances are S9 however; dronabinol (delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol) is S8, controlled drugs.

 

The UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances 197, states that signatories (Australia) will limit, by the measures each considers appropriate; the manufacture, export, import and distribution, use and possession of substances, to medical and scientific purposes. The NDPSC has recommended appropriate controls for these activities, and legislation in each jurisdiction mirrors these controls.

 

Regarding the Special Access Scheme (SAS), administered through the TGA, may I direct you to the TGA website and the TGA publication on bringing medicines into Australia which can be found at the following link: http://www.tga.gov.au/impexp/personal.htm.

Similarly your query regarding the prescription of Sativix in your particular state may best be referred to that particular jurisdiction.

I trust this information is of assistance to you.

 

NDPSC Secretariat

02 616032200