Port Stephens residents Stephen Porter and Peter Margan say medicinal cannabis is making a big and important difference to their lives.
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Both are aged 62 and have stage four prostate cancer that has spread to their bones.
"It's actually really good having someone in the same boat. We can make jokes among ourselves," Mr Porter said.
They talk about their health and they talk about medicinal cannabis.
Both men have doctor's prescriptions for legal medicinal cannabis through the national special access scheme.
"This wonder medicine has been unfairly stigmatised for so long," Mr Porter said.
"I sourced my own black market cannabis oil to help me through chemotherapy and radiation two years ago. During that time I had no nausea whatsoever, I had no hair loss and I put on weight. These are things that don't normally happen."
Now he gets the medication from a pharmacy.
"I truly believe it's helping to keep me alive."
He went through the process of getting a cannabis prescription from his doctor about eight months ago.
He said it was "really easy".
"Every doctor in Australia has the ability to write the script and pharmacies have the ability to stock it."
Many people are also getting prescriptions through online medical services, which are booming.
About 300,000 scripts have been approved for Australians, including many Hunter patients. About 89,000 scripts have been issued so far in 2022, 122,000 were issued in 2021, 58,000 in 2020 and 25,000 in 2019, TGA data shows.
The data shows people are being prescribed the drug for conditions including chronic pain, anxiety, sleep disorders, cancer pain and symptom management, neuropathic pain, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, epilepsy, arthritis, fibromyalgia, Crohn's and Parkinson's.
A Medicare rebate can be obtained for GP consultations to get a script, but the cannabis medication is not on the PBS [Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme].
Mr Porter said the more people that choose legal medicinal cannabis, the greater the chance of it being listed on the PBS.
University of Sydney's Lambert Initiative for Cannabinoid Therapeutics released new research on Thursday that found the cost of accessing medicinal cannabis was a barrier, "with an average cost of $79 per week, highlighting the need to address the cost of treatment".
"Overall, respondents reported positive outcomes of medical cannabis use, with 95 percent reporting improvement to their health."
Mr Margan's cancer has spread to his ribs, while Mr Porter's is in his upper arm and pelvis. The pair will be on cancer medication for the rest of their lives.
"Our cancers feed off testosterone, so we have to take a hormone blocker. That's equivalent to a chemical castration," Mr Porter said.
Mr Margan said the cancer medication made him feel "like a woman going through menopause".
Mr Porter added: "With the hot flushes".
Mr Margan said the medicine he takes to help fight the cancer "makes me think negative".
"I'm injecting estrogen for the cancer. It does make a man feel like a woman. You feel depressed, I guess. The pot makes me happier."
Mr Porter said the symptoms of his illness include "fatigue which is becoming an exhaustion".
"I'm very lucky in that I don't have much pain. If I'm tired and rundown I can feel the sites of the cancer, but I wouldn't call it pain.
"I have an overwhelming exhaustion that keeps increasing. Every single treatment that I take makes me tired."
The pair said medicinal cannabis picks them up and makes them feel better.
Both use medicinal cannabis oil and vape or smoke cannabis flower, also known as buds.
"I'll feel tired, then I'll have a vape and I'll get up. Then I'll find I've done something that I didn't plan on doing," Mr Margan said.
Mr Porter said cannabis helped him function better. He believes cannabis oil has therapeutic benefits.
He holds hope that it could cure his cancer, although research shows there "isn't a large enough body of evidence to prove that cannabis can reliably treat any form of cancer", according to Cancer Research UK.
It was last year that Hunter cancer researcher Dr Matt Dun found a form of medicinal cannabis can kill or inhibit cancer cells without impacting normal cells, which showed its potential as a treatment.
Dr Dun used the cannabis compound CBD (cannabidiol) in his study, but there are also trials around the world testing cannabis formulations containing THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) as a cancer treatment.
"Pre-clinical studies have demonstrated the potential anti-cancer activity of cannabinoids. No strong clinical trial data exist to confirm the pre-clinical studies that suggest cannabinoids may have an anti-cancer benefit," a recent review by the Cancer Research Centre in Minnesota found.
The cannabis plant has been used as a herbal remedy for centuries. Therapeutic uses of cannabis are documented in the texts of the Indian Hindus, Assyrians, Greeks and Romans.
They show the plant was used to treat many health problems such as arthritis, depression, inflammation, pain, lack of appetite and asthma.
Mr Porter said the plant had been "a tool of human health, community, socialisation and spirituality all through its history".
"We have endocannabinoid receptors in our system designed for cannabis.
"It's really a part of our wellbeing. Part of the breakdown in human wellbeing is the fact that we've had cannabis removed from us.
"The prohibitionists took that away from us, when it's such a necessary part of our physiology."
Mr Porter said society "needs to look at the bigger picture".
"We the people need our medicine back. We need self determination over our own destinies," he said.
Mr Porter and Mr Margan said the stigma around the use of cannabis remained a problem.
"We lost a huge flag-waver in Olivia Newton John. She legitimised the whole thing for so many older people. Who will hold that flag for us now?" Mr Porter said.
