The 2025 United In Compassion (UIC) medicinal cannabis symposium in Brisbane, Australia wrapped up nearly 2 weeks ago – but not without some ongoing controversy.
The Symposium was held at the Royal International Convention Centre Brisbane from the 21-23 February, with the theme “optimising quality and compliance”.
2025 marked a turning point for the Symposium, which finished up a day before the 10-year anniversary of the death of UIC founder Lucy Haslam’s son Dan. Ms. Haslam became a leading advocate for medicinal cannabis legalisation in Australia after finding some of Dan’s suffering was alleviated by it before he passed. Ms. Haslam and the UIC played a pivotal role in 2016 legislative changes legalising medical cannabis in Australia.
Ms. Haslam previously announced she would be handing over organising future UIC symposiums past 2025, which have been held since 2014.
“I have decided to draw a line in the sand at that point and will hand over the responsibility and pleasure of continuing the UIC Australian Medicinal Cannabis Symposium to AMCA.”
The AMCA is the Australian Medical Cannabis Association, which was founded in 2020 to improve patient access and support the nation’s medicinal cannabis sector.
The 2025 event was a success but marred by the alleged behaviour of some attendees. According to an AMCA post on LinkedIn, a number of people and organisations did not properly pay their way at the symposium.
“If you pushed your way into sessions (e.g. the regulatory and compliance session) that others had paid for, shame on you – it was very clear on the UIC ticketing page what the cost was for each training session and, no, they did not come free with your tickets for the Saturday and Sunday sessions. You left people who had paid good money without seats.”
The organisation also chastised businesses that benefited from exposure and access at the event, but were yet to make payment.
“Shame on you if you don’t pay your dues to UIC without further delay.”
After all Ms. Haslam’s hard work (and that of others associated with running the event), if the accusations are true then it’s a very disappointing situation – and hopefully some serious soul-searching is happening.
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