This week on Canna Curious, I’m reflecting on 48 hours that revealed the tension inside Australia’s medicinal cannabis space.

From hosting a candlelit launch centred on women, story and nervous system safety…to having a thoughtful dinner conversation with Professor Kylie O’Brien about the TGA and AHPRA review…to walking the floor at UIC 2026 - one of the country’s major industry conferences.

On paper, the conference program was rigorous and impressive, with respected clinicians and researchers presenting on addiction, hormones, endometriosis, regulatory frameworks and real-world data. Speakers like Justin Sinclair, Dedi Meiri and Dr Shabnam Sarshar are doing important, evidence-based work.

And yet, walking through the exhibitor hall, I kept asking one question:

Where were the patients?

This episode explores the shift from movement to marketplace, the evolution of the industry over the past decade, and why lived experience still matters in rooms where regulation, research and commerce intersect.

This isn’t a takedown. It’s a reflection on growth, memory, and the importance of keeping care at the centre.

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Connect with Kyla de Clifford
Instagram: @cannacuriousaus
TikTok: @cannacuriousau
YouTube: @cannacurious

If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, share, and leave a review - it helps the podcast reach more curious minds just like you.

Disclaimer:
We are not doctors, and this is not medical advice. Everything shared here is based on our personal lived experiences and the stories of others. Always speak with a qualified healthcare professional before making any changes to your health or wellness routine.

In this episode, Kyla sits down with Bee Mohamed for a deep, behind-the-scenes conversation on health policy, patient advocacy, and the realities of building change inside broken systems.

Bee shares her journey from working in Parliament House under the Minister for Women, to frontline advocacy work during the rise of prescription medication dependency and overdose, to entering the medicinal cannabis sector with a simple hope: access, affordability, and human rights for patients.

Together, Kyla and Bee unpack the difference between “advocacy” as branding versus advocacy as lived experience, why harm reduction conversations can be uncomfortable (but essential), and what brave leadership looks like when profit pressures collide with patient care.

This episode touches on heavy topics including female genital mutilation (FGM) and medication-related deaths with care, context, and a strong focus on how change actually happens.

Content Note

This episode includes discussion of:

• Female genital mutilation (FGM)
• Prescription medication dependency, overdose, and death

Please take care while listening.

What We Cover

• What it’s like to witness “political will” actually create change
• The rise of prescription dependency: opioids, benzodiazepines, and polypharmacy
• Why reforms like real-time prescription monitoring matter (and what they can/can’t fix)
• How Bee entered medicinal cannabis — and what she hoped would be different
• The ongoing barriers for patients: access, affordability, stigma, and driving laws
• Why roadside drug testing debates often miss the point (presence vs impairment)
• What “patient advocacy” really looks like in practice
• The tension between values and commercial structures — and how misalignment shows up in the body
• Can harm reduction exist inside a commercial model?
• “Corporate cannabis” and the missed opportunity to build true patient education
• Grief, integrity, and the moment you realise you can’t self-compromise anymore
• Bee’s definition of brave leadership: remembering why the industry exists at all

Links & Resources

• Bee Mohamed: @mata_gathering
• Harm Reduction Australia: Harm Reduction
• Drive Change campaign (drug driving reform): https://www.drivechangemc.org.au/tag/drug-driving/
• SafeScript / real-time prescription monitoring (Vic): [link]

If this episode hit something in you send it to a friend who’s tired of “just coping.”

And if you’re a clinic, brand, or organisation in this space: come talk to us. Harm reduction doesn’t have to be scary. Patient safety is not optional.

Subscribe to the podcas

"Send us a message"

Support the show

Connect with Kyla de Clifford
Instagram: @cannacuriousaus
TikTok: @cannacuriousau
YouTube: @cannacurious

If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, share, and leave a review - it helps the podcast reach more curious minds just like you.

Disclaimer:
We are not doctors, and this is not medical advice. Everything shared here is based on our personal lived experiences and the stories of others. Always speak with a qualified healthcare professional before making any changes to your health or wellness routine.

A History of Women in Cannabis - with Melanie Wentzel

Before prohibition.
Before pharma.
Before THC percentages became a marketing strategy.

Cannabis lived in women’s hands.

In this episode of Canna Curious, Kyla is joined by healthcare strategist, bestselling author of Cannabis Queens, and women’s health advocate Melanie Wentzel to trace the history of cannabis through a female lens.

Together, they travel back through:

• Ancient China and early medical pharmacopoeias
• Ancient Egypt and recorded cannabis suppositories for period pain
• Medieval Europe and Hildegard von Bingen’s writings on hemp
• The witch trials and the destruction of women’s medical knowledge

This is a lineage story.

It’s about remembering that women were clinicians long before we were allowed degrees. That tending plants, tending bodies, and tending community were never separate practices. And that the knowledge of this plant survived — even when the women who carried it were persecuted.

If you’ve ever felt like the modern cannabis conversation is missing something this episode explains why.

There is a golden thread running through history.

And we are still holding it.

In This Episode We Discuss

• Cannabis in ancient medical texts
• Women as early healers and apothecaries
• Suppositories and formulations used in Ancient Egypt
• Spiritual and ritual uses of cannabis across cultures
• Why high THC is a very modern obsession
• The erasure and survival of women’s plant knowledge

Resources Mentioned

• Cannabis Queens by Melanie Wentzel
• Historical references to Hildegard von Bingen
• Papyrus Ebers (Ancient Egyptian medical text)

If this episode resonated, share it with a woman who needs reminding that this story didn’t begin yesterday.

And if you’re loving these deeper dives, subscribe, rate, and leave a review - it helps more women find this conversation.

Let’s keep tracing the thread.

You can find Mel @h.i_m.e.l__

"Send us a message"

Support the show

Connect with Kyla de Clifford
Instagram: @cannacuriousaus
TikTok: @cannacuriousau
YouTube: @cannacurious

If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, share, and leave a review - it helps the podcast reach more curious minds just like you.

Disclaimer:
We are not doctors, and this is not medical advice. Everything shared here is based on our personal lived experiences and the stories of others. Always speak with a qualified healthcare professional before making any changes to your health or wellness routine.