The Senate made changes to the Narcotic Drugs Act on Wednesday to create a national body that can issue licenses to growers and regulate local crops of medicinal marijuana.

In the fight to prolong her life against terminal cancer, Ms Aulton said she turned to cannabis oil in the hope it would ease her pain and boost her immune system.

But the drug’s status as a prohibited substance meant she was forced to source it illegally.

Her desperate quest for treatment almost cost her life.

“I knew I had to reach a medicinal point of one gram a day for 60 days,” she said.

“I pushed myself to that point but I knew something was wrong.”

Ms Aulton said the source she relied on for cannabis oil was selling a contaminated product.

But it was one she needed to consume in large quantities.

“My source used butane [to extract the oil]. I was ingesting it.

“I spent four months eating poison and I haven’t walked since.”

Ms Aulton said she had recently secured a more reliable source for cannabis oil and had already noticed the benefits of returning to the treatment.

"Last year I had collapsed lungs, I was close to death," she said.

"But I've started to rebuild. I feel better, stronger." 

Health Minister Sussan Ley said the Department of Health and Therapeutic goods was well advanced in considering downgrading cannabis to a controlled substance in the same category as morphine.

Ms Aulton said the most significant benefit of the legislation would be a regulated, safe and reliable medicine.

She also said she was happy patients would no longer have to hide or become criminals as they tried to improve or prolong their lives.

“I don’t want any fear of telling people they should take it,” Ms Aulton said.

“You see stories every day on Facebook about kids with epilepsy benefiting from it and I just think ‘why the hell not?’.”

Ms Aulton said preventing the use of medicinal marijuana was an injustice.

“We’re not trying to profit from it, we’re just trying to survive,” she said.

Greens leader Richard Di Natale said the changes were an important first step to legalising medicinal marijuana. However he said more work was needed to deal with how doctors would prescribe the drug and how it would be distributed.

Vacy industrial hemp farmer Bob Doyle said he supported the move but had no plans to plant a medicinal crop. 

"I fully support what they're trying to do," he said.

"But we want people to know we've got industrial hemp, not medical."

Mr Doyle grows hemp plants with low THC levels, which makes them ideal for clothing, construction and insulation purposes while being ineffective as a medical or recreational drug.

But he said that didn't stop confused people "trying" his crop.

"We had a crop at Hinton. People just couldn't help themselves.

"Everyone told them all they'd get was a headache but they had to try it."

While Mr Doyle said the regulations and practicalities of medical marijuana crops would still need to be hashed out.

And while he reiterated his support for other growers to pursue the growth of medical crops in the Hunter Valley, he said issues like cross-pollination with low THC hemp farms and security would need to be addressed.

"Medical crops in the Hunter Valley would need to be grown in greenhouses or away from other crops," Mr Doyle said.

"I suspect the areas we're talking about would be quite small and highly policed.

"But these issues are not insurmountable."