Thursday, 30 October 2025

 Rachel PAYNE (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (09:59): This month was World Menopause Month, and I took the opportunity to hold a forum in my electorate on women’s health and cannabis. What is known as the gender cannabis gap is closing, and we know that where cannabis has been made easily accessible, especially for women, women are using it. The main reasons women cite cannabis use is for menopause, period pain, sleep and anxiety. The women’s health forum, hosted at the Frankston Arts Centre, was well attended, and the audience was made up of mainly older women who were interested in hearing from those with lived experience and experts on how women are finding relief from a myriad of women’s health issues. Joining me on the panel was Lisa Nguyen, a pharmacist and owner of Astrid Dispensary, and Tegan Scates, advocate and educator from Bloomly. I thank them for sharing their experiences and knowledge. Those with lived experience say they use cannabis either because other medications have failed them or because they prefer it to less addictive and stronger medications. Barriers still exist, and this includes stigma. It lingers from our outdated and regressive cannabis laws. We had one speaker lined up for the forum who was using cannabis for chemo treatment, who pulled out due to worries that her boss would potentially sack her. When you have a 60-year-old woman who is battling cancer who cannot talk about cannabis but could talk about oxy or fentanyl, we know that we have something seriously wrong with our legal system. The truth is women have been using cannabis for thousands of years across all cultures. Forums like this are part of the process of getting back to the point where we can be honest about that.