Teresa TowpikDr Teresa Towpik is a cannabis clinician in Australia since October 2018. Before that, she was a GP since 1993, originally from Poland, where she studied medicine from 1978 to 1984. As a conventional doctor she used to practise evidence-based medicin and followed the guidelines diligently. At the same time, she has always felt there is much more to healing than simply prescribing pills. As well as wanting to go deeper into why we get sick in first place, she felt a need to learn more about plants and herbs and practise more holistically. She researched and learnt about various methods. He motto is that that healing can occur on multiple levels: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. She believes the healing process is personal and unique for each person. As a traditional GP, she used to hold biased and limited views regarding cannabis. She felt it was illegal for valid reasons, being highly addictive, harmful and a gateway to heavier drugs such as heroin. She had not been aware of therapeutic properties of cannabis until January 2016 when she heard that the nation's laws were going to be amended legalising it for medicinal use. This news came as a revelation to her. She felt perhaps it could be the answer to her hopes of introducing a more holistic and natural approach to her practice. As she began researching cannabis, she quickly realised how mistaken she had been in her attitude, which had lacked any base of knowledge and understanding. While studying the plant and its history, she heard people talking about their experiences with medicinal cannabis and was touched and inspired by their stories. Perhaps the most amazing were the stories of children suffering from intractable epilepsy, who were going through 50-100 seizures per day. They were not responding to conventional drugs and they were experiencing many adverse effects. For many of them cannabis brought life-changing improvements. She decided to get actively involved in promoting cannabis treatments and educating the general public - and to hopefully interest other GPs who may be sceptical and dismissive of it, as she once was. In researching cannabis and its therapeutic properties, her initial learning experience was chaotic and frustrating. She struggled with so much information online and was searching for more structured education for busy doctors. With that in mind she funded MediHuanna in October 2016. MediHuanna is devoted to educating health professionals about the science of medicinal cannabis and equipping them with the practical skills necessary to treat and prescribe for patients who would benefit from its use. MediHuanna's online and face-to-face courses have received accreditation from the Royal College of General Practitioners (RACGP), the professional body of GPs responsible for maintaining the standards of GP education. She has been prescribing cannabis since March 2018 and feels extremely privileged to witness many life-changing experiences among her patients. Being able to guide them and see them getting better has been very rewarding. She is now actively involved in educating and mentoring fellow doctors, hoping to inspire them to learn about the remarkable properties of this plant and to embrace it as an important therapeutic agent that will widen and enhance their treatment options. Read More Read Less