But there are those in the community suffering from chronic pain and/or mental illness who are now finding it impossible to access medication like benzodiazepines.

One Nambucca Shire resident who is struggling with tightening access to pain relief is Dave*.

In 1983 at the age of 19, Dave was lucky to survive after a motorcycle accident altered the course of his life forever.

He came away with a broken back, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and a decision to make about whether to agree to spinal fusion surgery.

After considering his options he decided that the risks of the surgery far outweighed the benefits.

But he has since been on constant alert for the moments his back might lapse into those spontaneous and agonising jolts of pain.

“My back’s great most of the time, but when it goes, the pain comes out of nowhere and it goes right through you,” he said.

He also suffers from anxiety and insomnia – manifestations of his PTSD – and found that benzodiazepines were the only pharmaceuticals that alleviated symptoms from both conditions.

“The only painkillers that work for these kinds of injuries are opiates, and most of the time they barely touch the sides,” he said.

“Opiates are all prescription-only now and I’ve found it really difficult to get doctors around here to prescribe them.

“I’ve been told ‘sorry we don’t prescribe them here’ – point blank.

“And you can’t even get in to see a doctor in town because they’re not taking any more patients.

“At the moment it could be weeks and weeks before you can get any relief from pain.”

So Dave, like a number of other locals, has been self-medicating with cannabis.

“I just found that weed was really good straight away at alleviating my symptoms,” he said.

“And I’m more pleasant to be around.”

He said that smoking marijuana has helped him with his sometimes crippling social anxiety and the sensory overload he feels when he goes out in public.

Whereas opioids can have some pretty unpleasant side-effects like constipation, lethargy or drowsiness, and suicidal ideation, weed creates none for Dave.

“But you’ve got to have the right type of pot – the type has a large bearing on how you feel.

“The variety, how well it was grown, when it was picked –  it all has an impact on how the plant interacts with you.”

He said the problem with using cannabis as medication was sourcing a consistent supply of weed that is of the same quality and same dosage every time – a problem arising from its illegal status.

“In the States they have access to all of that information so they can work out what’s best for them,” he said.

He is critical of the way our government has been rolling out medical marijuana access; only patients with chronic pain, seizures and terminal illness are currently being considered by a handful of doctors.

Those suffering acute pain or from mental illness or trauma are still being denied.

“We have medical-grade cannabis now, but noone can have access to it – it may as well still be illegal,” he said.

“But really, people need to be able to grow it for themselves – because not everyone can afford to buy it.

“And if the government made it more accessible, or allowed people to grow one or two plants, then people who need it wouldn’t be feeding money into criminal operations.”

When asked if he agreed with the popular notion that marijuana acted as a slippery slope to other, harder drugs, he said that he did in as much as he believed alcohol to act as a ‘gateway drug’ too.

“The only difference is alcohol is legal,” he said. 

Dave was quick to point out that he doesn’t believe weed is for everyone.

“This is not something I’m encouraging people to do – it’s an individual experience,” he said.

“I’m the opposite of most people – I don’t get paranoid when I smoke.

“And it can be a trigger for those predisposed to schizophrenic tendencies.” 

When asked why people can’t instead source an oil without THC (tetrahydrocannabinol or THC is the principal psychoactive constituent of cannabis) to relieve pain, he said those extractions only worked for treating pain from some conditions.

“There are many others, like cancer, that need a full-plant extract to be effective,” he said.

“I feel that when you start isolating parts, it starts becoming more of a drug than a plant. And I find plants work better when they have a full range of cannabinoids.

“People have been doing this for tens of thousands of years and it’s been working since then – so why change it?”

Scientists are discovering more and more evidence pointing to phytocannabinoids harbouring an untapped wealth of natural pharmaceutical benefits.

When a potentially cheap and effective pain-relief option could be grown in our own gardens beside the tomatoes and basil, is it time to bury the stigma and just allow nature to take its course?

*Not his real name.