Today, Australia's health minister, Sussan Ley, has said she is confident of bipartisan support to allow for the legal cultivation of cannabis for medical or scientific purposes. The establishment of a scheme such as this will pave the way for patients with painful and chronic conditions to gain access to medical marijuana. I have noticed that the press releases today have kept the 'marijuana' word out and instead are calling it cannabis.

It was made very clear that this will not decriminalise the growth and sale of cannabis for general consumption, which is fine, they are a completely separate issue, but sadly, it is the 'people will think it's safe to spoke pot' argument that has stopped hemp seeds becoming legal as a food in Australia despite it being declared safe by Food Standards Australia & New Zealand.

With so many parents with children with illnesses that only respond to cannabis, it's heartbreaking to watch their stories and for them to be forced to go underground to buy cannabis that has not been grown and graded in a controlled environment. Hopefully this will all change this. In particular, there are children with a type of epilepsy who fit dozens and sometimes hundreds of times a day, and their condition is resistant to all known drugs, but cannabis seems to help them. Read more on that here. The compassionate access scheme for these children will start in March 2016 and I'm sure it can't come soon enough for those parents.

Will this new legislation pave the way for yet another round by the hemp industry in Australia to finally win their battle to have hemp recognised as a legal food? Let's hope so. It is one of only two complete plant protein sources (the other one is soy) and it contains a great balance of good quality omega fatty acids too. Australia and New Zealand are the only two countries in the world who do not recognise hemp as a legal food source. That has to change.

In the meantime, we sell hemp seeds and hemp oil. As they are food grade products, they are found in our food section, but they are best treated as an organic skin care product and used to make body scrubs. Hemp oil, like coconut oil, is very nourishing for the skin but does has a short shelf life once open and should be kept in the fridge and away from light once exposed to oxygen.

Read more about the medical cannabis story on the ABC News website.