By Sue White
Elaine Darby has had a multitude of careers in her time. First, there was winemaking, helped along by degrees in molecular biology and microbiology. Then came speechwriting for her father, Mal Washer, former Federal MP in Western Australia. Eventually, she worked as a lawyer.
But none of Darby's careers catches people's attention as much as her current role. Darby is now the managing director of AusCann, one of Australia's biggest medical cannabis companies.
Managing Director of AusCann Elaine Darby says it was hard to turn her back on the scientific evidence supporting medical cannabis.
"If you'd told me two years ago I'd have been involved with cannabis, I'd have been really surprised," she says. "You do get a weird response from some people."
When Darby learned about the industry, initially from her father (also a doctor and the former chairman of AusCann), she was sceptical.
Elaine Darby and her father Dr Mal Washer.Credit: TREVOR COLLENS
"When [my father] told me to look into medical cannabis I thought it was probably just an excuse for people to get high," she says.
That was until Darby looked at the clinical data and saw the kind of results people were getting for chronic conditions like nerve pain.
"I was astounded," she says.
The "eye opener" drew her to want to help educate the medical community about medical cannabis and become involved in the production of high-quality, safe medications.
In Australia, the legal situation for medical cannabis sales is complex, and varies from state to state. But what is clear is that career wise, there are (very legal) jobs to be had.
"In our firm our medical liaison managers play a very key role. These individuals go and educate doctors about medical cannabis," she says.
"Doctors generally are really keen to know. If there were [people] outside of companies doing that education, that would be good too," she says.
There are also opportunities for clinical studies and scientific research into medical cannabis.
"The University of Sydney received [in 2015] almost $34 million from the Lambert family to do research in this area," Darby says. "So there's a real need for good researchers to work [in the field]."
Then, of course, there will be production roles in growing, extraction techniques for manufacturing medical cannabis into a final pharmaceutical form, and flow on industries to provide equipment, lighting or greenhouses.
The entire process is very highly regulated, not the least by the federally-controlled Office of Drug Control. One person who knows where this is all headed, not the least in terms of jobs, is Dr Danial Schecter. The Canadian is AusCann's chief medical officer and has trained its medical liaison officers, among other tasks. Schecter has been studying medical cannabis since his student days, and the clinic he opened in 2004, which specialises in cannabis-based medicine, has received more than 35,000 patient referrals since.
He says that job-wise, the liaison-based role of the "cannabinoid educator" has proven to valuable link between patients, doctors and pharmacists.
"This is a role whereby someone is trained in various aspects of cannabinoid medicine and helps the patient to use cannabis in the best manner possible. This includes choosing the appropriate strain or formulation of cannabis, the best method of administration and help with dosing, titrating [measuring and adjusting] and monitoring," he says.
It's a job that, while not necessarily seen yet in Australia, may be here in the future as the medical cannabis market develops.
"Cannabis is different from most other medications; it requires more effort by the patient and more coaching as they have to self-titrate their medication," Schecter says.