How to talk to your GP about medicinal cannabis

Many patients assume they have to go to a specialist cannabis clinic to access medicinal cannabis. You don't. Any registered New Zealand doctor, including your own GP, can prescribe the great majority of medicinal cannabis products without specialist sign-off or Ministerial approval. The barrier is rarely the law — it is prescriber confidence. Surveys suggest around two-thirds of NZ doctors say they would not currently prescribe, usually because they feel the clinical-trial evidence is limited.

That makes how you raise the topic genuinely important. A good conversation treats your GP as a partner, not a gatekeeper to be argued past.

Why start with your GP

Your GP already knows your history, your other medications and your goals. They can weigh drug interactions, screen for cautions and place cannabis in the context of everything else you take. They are also far cheaper than a clinic for follow-up, and continuity of care matters for a medicine that needs careful titration. Even if your GP ultimately refers you on, having them informed and involved is a real advantage.

Before the appointment

• Be specific about the problem, not the product. "My sleep has been broken for eight months and the things I've tried haven't worked" lands better than "I want cannabis."
• Bring your history of what you've tried. Prescribers — and the official guidance — treat cannabis as a last-line or add-on option after standard treatments. Showing you've worked through the usual approaches strengthens your case.
• Book a longer appointment. This is not a two-minute conversation.
• Write down your current medicines and supplements. Interactions are a genuine clinical concern (CBD affects several liver enzymes; THC adds to sedation from other drugs).

What your GP will reasonably want to know

Expect questions about your diagnosis, the severity and duration of symptoms, previous treatments and their results, your mental-health history (a history of psychosis or schizophrenia is a significant caution), whether you are pregnant or planning pregnancy, and how cannabis might interact with your job, driving and other medicines. These are not obstacles — they are the same diligence you'd want before starting any medicine.

Useful, honest framing

You will build more trust by being evidence-aware than by overselling. Acknowledge openly that:

• Cannabis is not a first-line treatment for any condition in New Zealand.
• The strongest evidence is narrow — purified CBD for specific rare epilepsies, and THC-based products for chemotherapy nausea — and for most uses the evidence is limited or mixed.
• Around four in five people taking a medicinal cannabis product experience some side effect.

Saying this yourself signals that you understand the trade-offs and want a careful trial with clear goals, not a miracle.

If your GP says no

A "no" is not the end of the road, and it is rarely personal. Options include:

• Ask why. Is it a clinical concern specific to you (an interaction, a caution), or general unfamiliarity with prescribing? The answer tells you what to do next.
• Ask for a referral. Your GP may be comfortable referring you to a colleague or a clinic that prescribes regularly.
• Approach a dedicated clinic directly. Most NZ access today is through direct-to-patient telehealth clinics that need no referral.
• Keep your GP in the loop. If you proceed elsewhere, ask the clinic to send your GP the details so your full record stays coordinated and interactions are watched.

Questions worth asking your GP

Turning the conversation into a genuine clinical discussion helps. Useful questions include:

• Given my history and other medicines, is there any reason cannabis would be unsafe or unsuitable for me?
• Are you comfortable prescribing, or would you prefer to refer me to someone who prescribes regularly?
• If we did trial a product, what would success look like, and how would we measure it?
• How would we monitor for interactions and side effects?
• Would a CBD-dominant, non-intoxicating product be a sensible starting point given my situation?

These questions show you're thinking about the medicine the way a careful clinician does — as a supervised trial with defined goals — rather than chasing a fixed outcome.

Keeping expectations realistic

It helps to remember what cannabis is and isn't in the New Zealand system. It is a prescription medicine, used as an add-on or last-line option, with a modest and uneven evidence base. It is not a cure-all, and it won't suit everyone. A GP who senses that you understand this is far more likely to engage seriously than one who feels they're being pushed toward a predetermined answer. The most productive appointments are collaborative: you bring the lived experience and the history, your GP brings the clinical judgement, and together you decide whether a trial makes sense.

The goal is good care, not a particular drug

The point of the conversation is to solve the problem that brought you in. Sometimes that ends in a cannabis prescription; sometimes it ends in a better-optimised version of a treatment you'd dismissed too early. Either way, going in prepared, honest about the evidence and open to your doctor's judgement gets you better care than treating the appointment as a battle to be won.

Last reviewed 22 June 2026 — education, not medical advice. Only a registered New Zealand doctor can decide whether medicinal cannabis is right for you. Sources: bpacnz — An overview of medicinal cannabis; Withanarachchie et al. 2023 — prescriber attitudes.