Course catalogue

History, botany & the chemovar framework

The plant's medical history, how it makes cannabinoids, and the chemovar framework that replaces strain names.

The endocannabinoid system

Components, operation, and receptor distribution of the endocannabinoid system, and why mechanism alone does not make a therapy.

Cannabinoid pharmacology: PK and PD

THC and CBD absorption by route, metabolism, pharmacodynamics, tolerance, and the CYP450 basis of interactions.

Product quality and the Certificate of Analysis

Reading and judging a lot-specific Certificate of Analysis: potency, contaminants, verification, and storage.

Dosage forms, routes of administration and the South African product reality

Dosage-form and route vocabulary, how route changes pharmacokinetics, and what a South African patient can actually obtain.

Dosing principles and titration

Start low, go slow: the biphasic dose-response that makes titration the rule, and a worked titration plan.

Evidence base and indications, with appraisal methodology

A critical-appraisal toolkit, indications mapped by certainty of evidence, and the uses and limits of real-world evidence.

Safety I: adverse effects, cannabis use disorder and acute toxicity

The adverse-effect profile, screening for cannabis use disorder and raised risk, and recognising acute toxicity and hyperemesis.

Safety II: drug interactions and contraindication screening

The pharmacokinetic basis of cannabinoid-drug interactions, screening a regimen, and the monitoring plan that follows.

Special populations

Pregnancy, lactation, renal and hepatic impairment, older adults, and HIV: weighing risk against benefit and naming the evidence gaps.

SA legal and regulatory framework: Section 21 taught once

The course's full treatment of South African access law: why Section 21 applies, the scheduling context, the authorisation lifecycle, and look-alike routes.

Global regulatory models and WHO rescheduling

The international families of medical-cannabis access, the trade-offs each makes, and rescheduling under the 1961 Single Convention.

Professional ethics and law (HPCSA and SAPC), with caregiver consent

The two councils' conduct codes and the informed-consent standard, including caregiver and proxy consent.

Patient communication and shared decision-making

Structuring a shared decision, confirming understanding with teach-back, and communicating benefit, harm, and uncertainty without distortion.

Duty to report and pharmacovigilance

The duty to report suspected adverse reactions, the reporting pathway and timing, and how single reports become national safety signals.

Clinical decision-making and patient selection

The refractory-only selection principle, screening against absolute and relative contraindications, and deciding on a time-limited therapeutic trial.

Treatment planning, titration and monitoring

Setting goals and baselines, reading response at follow-up, and a monitoring plan across the treatment timeline.

Psychiatric workup: risk stratification, suicidality and the referral decision

The psychiatric harm evidence, history and risk stratification including suicidality, and a safety plan with escalation and referral criteria.

Impairment, forensic and workplace

What a positive cannabis test does and does not prove, impairment frameworks and the South African position, and fitness-for-duty questions.

Section 21 prescriber execution and lifecycle

Assembling and lodging a Section 21 application, operating a granted authorisation, and deciding whether to reauthorise, re-apply, or exit.

The prescribing act: writing the Schedule 6 script

Writing a Regulation 33-compliant prescription, the Schedule 6 rules on validity, quantity, and repeats, and testing the script's defensibility.

Controlled-substance handling: GPP, three-phase dispensing, S5 and S6

The authority to hold Schedule 5 and 6 stock, receipt, storage, and security controls, and the registers that make handling auditable.

Labelling for unregistered Section 21 products: PIL and patient information

The label particulars required on an unregistered Section 21 medicine, the professional and patient information that accompanies it, and verifying compliance before supply.

Compounding and stability: the international best-practice frame

Magistral compounding and starting-material specification, beyond-use dates and storage conditions, and an auditable compounding-and-stability protocol.

Pharmacovigilance and dispensing-time screening

The dispensing-time interaction and contraindication screen, acting on a flag, recognising adverse reactions, and the counselling touchpoint.

GMP, GWP, GDP and recall at pharmacy scale

The manufacture and distribution quality systems a pharmacy relies on, and recognising, quarantining, and responding to a recall or quality defect.

The dispensing act: receiving, dispensing, recording and closing out the Schedule 6 supply

Receiving and verifying a Schedule 6 script, the supply conditions, the three-phase dispense, labelling, recording, and closing out unused stock.