The bid to legalise cannabis for medical use is gaining momentum, and Tasmania has been suggested as a growing site.

A cross-party delegation from New South Wales will be in Tasmania next week for a site visit and will meet the state Health Minister.

NSW MP Kevin Anderson, who is working on a private member's bill to legalise medicinal cannabis for the terminally ill in that state, will lead the delegation.

Tasman Health Cannabinoids, a private company, is proposing trials to grow medical cannabis after conducting extensive tests in partnership with the University of Tasmania.

Medicinal cannabis is being touted as a crop that would complement Tasmania's lucrative poppy harvest.

Cannabinoids can be extracted from the cannabis flower in the same way as opiates are extracted from the poppy flower.

Advocates say the side effects are few, the benefits great and the risk of addiction much lower than for many conventional medications.

Tasman Health Cannabinoids chairman Mal Washer, a general practitioner and former West Australian Liberal MP, says traditional anti-nausea medicines fail many people.

Dr Washer, who is also the former head of the national Alcohol and Other Drugs Council, says he wants to educate policymakers about the potential of medicinal cannabis.

"It's illegal [but] we're not talking about using cannabis for that purpose, for recreational purpose, we're talking about doing appropriate medical trials," he said.

He said he looked forward to discussing medicinal cannabis with Tasmanian Health Minister Michael Ferguson and other state legislators.

Mum of three with terminal cancer praises cannabis oil

Tasmanian woman Natalie Daley, 32, is happily married with three young children whose life changed after a CT scan.

"That's when they found a tumour the size of a football in my abdomen, on my kidney," she said.

"The cancer I've got is called adrenal cortical carcinoma, it's a very rare cancer of the adrenal gland.

"The diagnosis isn't good. They've told me it's terminal."

She needed seven weeks of radiation followed by chemotherapy after nodules on her lungs spread.

"I wasn't able to get up and play with the kids because I was so tired and weak and it impacted on my husband a lot as well," she said.

"He was having to come home and cook meals, I just felt like a failure as a wife and a mother."

Prescribed anti-nausea medication did not work, and a friend of a friend suggested cannabis oil.

"It's just been amazing the results that this oil has done for me it's just changed my life," she said.

A capsule twice a day and a few drops in a cup of tea means Ms Daley can now eat full meals and enjoy time with her children.

The capsules are sent to her by a supporter interstate, and she says medical cannabis should be legalised.

"I truly believe I wouldn't be here now, or I'd be in hospital not very well at all. I'd be pretty much on my death bed right now," she said.

Troy Langman, who set up Tasman Health Cannabinoids last year, says trials would focus on users such as Ms Daley.

"We have designed our first clinical study which does focus on chemo-induced nausea and vomiting," Mr Langman said.

"I want to make this my life's work and I'd like to base it here. I believe it's a huge opportunity for Tasmania.

"It's a win-win situation. Not only can we make sick people feel better but we can also provide employment."

Mr Langman hopes to finalise plans for a trial within next two weeks and will then seek approval from the University of Tasmania's ethics committee.

"In conjunction to that we have begun the process of obtaining licensing to actually grow the cannabis in a highly secure facility," he said.

Licensing would require consent from the Tasmanian Government.

Medical cannabis may have export potential

There has already been interest from overseas, Mr Langman said.

"We had an order from Canada, where it's legal to have medical marijuana, for an order for 1,000 kilograms of marijuana from Tasmania if we can get it legalised and start getting it into production," he said.

"So there's a big export potential."

The medicinal use of cannabis has been legalised in a several countries around the world, and was legal in Australia until the middle of the last century.

The President of the Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation, Dr Alex Wodak, says legalisation in the United States has had no impact on recreation use.

"The states where medicinal cannabis is made available were compared with states where medicinal cannabis isn't available and the number of people using recreational cannabis was no different in the two groups," he said.