Speaker: Dr. Alex Wodak AM
About: Many of us would have much preferred to see recreational and medicinal cannabis regulated well a long time ago in Australia. Medicinal cannabis has now been regulated in Australia since 2016, but it is still not well regulated. How can its regulation be improved? The regulation of medicinal cannabis cannot be separated from the regulation of recreational cannabis. What can Australia learn from the regulation of recreational cannabis in other countries?
Bio: Dr Wodak is an Emeritus Consultant, Alcohol and Drug Service, St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney, and Tobacco Harm Reduction Adviser to the Harm Reduction Australia Board. Wodak is a notable advocate of drug reform laws, and helped establish the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, the NSW Users AIDS Association, and the Australian Society of HIV Medicine. Wodak is President of the Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation and was President of the International Harm Reduction Association. Wodak also helped open Australia’s first needle exchange programme and the first medically supervised injecting centre in Kings Cross.
A portrait of him by artist Nick Mourtzakis was a 2009 Archibald Prize finalist. In the 2010 Queen’s Birthday Honours, he was made a Member of the Order of Australia for “service to medicine and public health, particularly in the area of drug and alcohol dependency treatment, through legislative reform, and to medical education”.
