Education, Patient Care & the Role of Science in Medicinal Cannabis – Penny Murdoch
At EQWELLIBRIYUM, we believe education is one of the most important drivers of better patient outcomes and responsible growth within the medicinal cannabis industry. We recently sat down with one of our team members – Penny Murdoch – a qualified naturopath and medicinal cannabis industry representative, to discuss her background, the importance of education, and how scientific knowledge supports healthcare professionals in making informed treatment decisions.
Can you tell us a little about your background and what led you to become both a naturopath and a medicinal cannabis industry representative?
Honestly, this story starts on the farm I grew up on, a long way from any services. If we hurt ourselves, we had to make do, and more often than not that meant going out to the garden rather than to a chemist. That early experience of resourcefulness, and of plants having a genuine, practical use, stayed with me long before I ever had a name for it.
When I was about to embark on my registered nursing career, it wasn't exactly a straight line. To determine who would fill the postgraduate positions, we were asked to answer an essay question: Where do you see nursing beyond 2000? I wrote about combining alternative and western medicine, and I failed it. So I pivoted into a remote nursing role instead. There's always more than one way into something you love, and that's a lesson I've carried throughout my career. But the conviction behind that essay never left me.
Years later, after working in different hospitals, I moved onto permanent night shift. I used the quiet nights to study, completing my naturopathy qualifications while learning alongside a practising naturopath. It wasn't always polished, but eventually I started my own naturopathic business, combining nursing with naturopathy, western herbal medicine and nutrition, exactly the path I'd once been told wouldn't work.
After that, I moved into pharmaceuticals with Novartis. It gave me more than a decade of rigorous, evidence-based clinical training across multiple disease states, along with valuable experience communicating complex science to doctors and specialists. It also gave me genuine insight into how hospitals operate, from referral pathways to the realities of clinical decision-making.
When the medicinal cannabis industry began to mature in Australia, it felt like the natural convergence of everything I'd done up to that point: my naturopathic understanding of plant medicine, my nursing foundation, and my pharmaceutical experience translating science for busy clinicians. I moved into the industry and have since worked across sales, operations, management and the broader business, while continuing to learn from the patients and veterans the industry exists to serve.
2. How has your background as a naturopath influenced the way you engage with healthcare professionals?
Being dual-qualified means I can speak two clinical languages fluently. I understand the pharmacological, evidence-based framework that doctors and pharmacists are trained in, but I also understand the whole-patient, plant-medicine lens that naturopathy brings. That combination means I'm not walking into a conversation with a prescriber as an outsider explaining an unfamiliar therapy; I'm speaking with clinical credibility on both sides of the equation.
Practically, it means conversations with doctors, nurses and pharmacists go deeper than product features. We can talk about cannabinoid pharmacology and drug interactions in the same conversation as terpene profiles and patient-reported experience. Because I've sat on both sides of the clinical fence, those conversations come from genuine clinical understanding rather than a sales pitch.
At the heart of it all, education is the key. It's what turns a hesitant conversation into a confident clinical decision.
3. Why do you believe education is so important within the medicinal cannabis industry?
This is an industry that moves incredibly fast, with new products, new evidence and shifting regulatory frameworks appearing all the time. If clinicians aren't kept current, patient care suffers, whether that's through overly conservative prescribing that denies patients access to appropriate treatment, or under-informed prescribing that doesn't account for interactions or dosing nuance.
For doctors, education means confidence: the confidence to prescribe appropriately, have informed conversations with patients, and know when medicinal cannabis is, or isn't, the right pathway. For patients and veterans, it means understanding what they're taking, why they're taking it, and what to expect. Good education builds confidence on both sides of the consultation and ultimately improves patient care.
Medicinal cannabis also isn't like most other medications, where you land on a dose and simply stay there. It's a titration process: starting low, adjusting gradually, and knowing when and how to adjust cannabinoids or ratios for each patient. That level of nuance comes from ongoing education and clinical experience, not simply a product label.
Education also helps prescribers look beyond cannabinoid content alone. Cannabinoids determine what the medicine does, while terpenes influence how the patient experiences it. As research continues to expand beyond THC and CBD to compounds like CBG, CBN and terpene science, understanding the whole picture allows clinicians to make more precise, individualised treatment decisions.
At the end of the day, education is what ties all of this together. It's the one constant this industry can't afford to compromise on.
4. In your experience, what are healthcare professionals most interested in learning about medicinal cannabis?
What I hear most consistently from clinicians is how to find the right product for the right patient. Prescribers want practical, confident guidance on matching a formulation, cannabinoid profile or delivery method to the person in front of them, rather than working through the options alone.
It's also important to recognise that medicinal cannabis isn't appropriate for everyone, and knowing who those patients are is just as important as knowing who may genuinely benefit. But when you do get it right, the outcomes can be incredibly rewarding. Watching someone regain function, experience less pain, sleep better, or simply enjoy a better quality of life is what this is all about. That impact extends beyond the patient to their family, work and friends, and for a doctor, seeing those outcomes is a real credit to everything they do.
Doctors are also navigating a significant amount of government red tape before they can prescribe medicinal cannabis. Taking the time to educate and guide them through that process is often the biggest barrier between a patient and appropriate treatment.
There are certainly companies in this industry that are focused purely on the bottom line, and I understand why that makes some clinicians cautious. But there are many ethical organisations committed to supporting doctors with evidence-based guidance, whether that's dose calculations, titration schedules or selecting the most appropriate product for an individual patient.
My message to doctors is always the same: don't be scared, and ask for help. Medicinal cannabis has been around for a very long time, and used correctly, it's an amazing medication. Doctors genuinely want to help their patients, and our role is to support them in making informed clinical decisions. Doing something is better than doing nothing, and doing something well, and informed, is better again.
5. Many people think sales is simply about promoting products. How do you see the role of education within medicinal cannabis sales?
I've never really seen what I do as "sales" in the traditional sense, and that's been true since my earliest days in the pharmaceutical industry. A prescriber's job is to make the right clinical decision for the patient in front of them, and my job is to make sure they have accurate, balanced, evidence-based information to do that well, regardless of which product that leads them to.
The programs that have had the greatest impact, such as patient identification tools built directly into clinical software, weren't created by pushing a product; they were created by solving genuine clinical gaps with good information. In medicinal cannabis, where public understanding is still catching up to the science, that distinction between education and promotion is more important than ever, and it's why healthcare professionals value evidence-led conversations.
What gets me out of bed isn't sales, it's the conversations I've had with patients and veterans throughout my career, and knowing I've played a small part in helping improve their lives. It's always a team effort between the doctor, pharmacist and everyone involved in that person's care, but being part of that team is what makes the work worthwhile. At the end of the day, supporting clinicians with good information is what ultimately helps patients.
6. Looking ahead, what do you hope to see for the future of medicinal cannabis education in Australia?
I'd love to see continued growth in high-quality clinical research, drawing on evidence generated both here in Australia and internationally, so prescribers have access to a broad and well-rounded body of knowledge. Alongside that, greater access to structured professional development for GPs, specialists, nurses and pharmacists would make a real difference. Medicinal cannabis education shouldn't be something clinicians stumble into by chance; it should be as accessible and normalised as any other area of therapeutic training.
I'd also like to see closer collaboration between clinics, prescribers, regulators and industry, so education remains consistent, evidence-led and focused on improving patient care. Better public awareness matters too. When patients arrive with realistic, well-informed expectations, it leads to more productive conversations with their prescriber and ultimately better outcomes.
In many ways, that would bring this whole industry full circle to where I started. I once wrote an essay about combining alternative and western medicine and was told it wouldn't work. Watching that combination become mainstream, respected and genuinely evidence-based within my own lifetime would, without question, be the outcome I'd find most rewarding.
7. What are some of the biggest challenges you see facing the medicinal cannabis industry in Australia today?
Probably the biggest one is still stigma, both within parts of the medical profession and in the broader community. Despite everything we now know about the endocannabinoid system and the growing clinical evidence behind cannabinoid therapies, there's still a perception in some circles that this is a lifestyle product rather than a legitimate medicine. That hesitation means some doctors are reluctant to even explore it as an option for their patients.
Access is another significant challenge, particularly for people in rural and regional Australia, and for veterans managing complex health needs. Cost can also be a barrier, although there are affordable options available, and part of my role is helping doctors understand where those options exist. Reliable product supply is equally important. Doctors need confidence that products will remain available and consistent in their cannabinoid and terpene profiles from batch to batch, so patients can continue treatment without unnecessary disruption.
Finally, because both the evidence base and regulatory environment continue to evolve, prescriber confidence remains uneven across the country. This industry has come a long way, but there's still plenty of work to do.
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EQWELLIBRIYUM offers end-to-end consulting for organisations navigating the medicinal cannabis market in Australia. With strategic insights and operational frameworks that are designed to help you thrive, we’re here to help you. Learn more by contacting us today at hello@eqwellibriyum.com.
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