According to Kiama MP Gareth Ward, the first trial will play a critical role in helping to better understand what role medical cannabis can play in alleviating symptoms and pain in terminally ill patients.

The research team, led by chief investigator Associate Professor Meera Agar from the University of NSW, will assess whether cannabis products can enhance the quality of life of people with a terminal cancer, particularly by improving appetite and appetite-related symptoms.

South Coast MP Shelley Hancock said the government has committed $9 million to support three medicinal cannabis clinical trials for terminally ill adults, chemotherapy patients suffering nausea and vomiting and children with severe drug-resistant epilepsy.

The trial will be undertaken in two parts – the first part will involve approximately 30 patients at the Calvary Mater Hospital in Newcastle, testing if a vapourised leaf cannabis product is well tolerated by patients, if there are any unwanted side effects, and establish the ideal dose and how often it should be administered.

Results are expected by the end of 2016, at which time the second part of the trial will start, where a large group of patients at major hospitals across metropolitan and regional areas will be administered a cannabis product or placebo by researchers to see whether patients who received a cannabis product had outcomes that were better, worse or the same as patients who had not received the cannabis product.

It is intended to trial two types of cannabis products, a vaporised botanical leaf product and a pharmaceutical product.