Time for Change Survey and Report

46 DRUG TESTING AND CANNABIS REFORM Understanding of the medicinal cannabis system Only 44.3% of people agreed or strongly agreed that they had a good understanding of the system for accessing medicinal cannabis in Australia, while 19.4% neither agreed or disagreed, and a massive 36% disagreed or strongly disagreed. Students and/or young people had the highest understanding overall (51.2% agree/strongly agree), followed by professionals (49.7%) and people who use drugs (49.6%), with lower understanding among friends (46.9%) and family (43.5%) of people who use drugs (see Figure 21). Figure 21. Understanding of the system for accessing medicinal cannabis in Australia Understanding was significantly different between age groups, genders, states/territories, and communities: ● Individuals aged 56 and older expressed less understanding of the current system for accessing medicinal cannabis compared to those aged 36 to 55, while no significant differences were found between those aged 35 and younger and the other age groups. ● Male-identifying people expressed significantly higher understanding compared to female-identifying people, and gender-diverse people. ● Respondents who identified as someone who uses drugs or as a professional reported lower understanding than people who did not identify this way. ● Less QLD residents reported a good understanding of the medicinal cannabis system than residents from other jurisdictions. These results indicate a notably low level of understanding about the medicinal cannabis system in Australia, highlighting the need for clearer public education and accessible information. Targeted efforts may be particularly beneficial for older adults, female-identifying and gender-diverse individuals, and residents of Queensland, who reported significantly lower levels of understanding.