How to use archived MedCan programmes and speaker pages

Archived MedCan pages, captured on the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, can be a useful historical record of New Zealand’s medicinal cannabis conferences, speaker sessions, and product presentations. They are not, however, a source of current medical guidance. This page shows you how to locate those archived pages, check what was actually said, and use the material without mistaking a past programme for today’s rules or evidence.

Why these pages exist in the archive

Between roughly 2019 and 2023, MedCan (the Medicinal Cannabis Conference and Expo) ran events in New Zealand that brought together clinicians, industry sponsors, and patient advocates. The domain’s capture history in the Wayback Machine preserves programme pages, speaker biographies, and session descriptions from those events. Because the original site is no longer active, the archived pages are now a historical record of what the industry was claiming and promoting at a particular time.

The single most important rule for using these archives: an archived conference page is a dated artefact, not a current medical guideline. A session titled “CBD for chronic pain” from 2021 reflects the evidence and marketing claims of that year. It does not reflect the 2025 evidence base, and it does not tell you what is prescribed today. Treat the archive as a primary source for “what was said then,” not as “what is true now.”

What the archive actually contains

The archived MedCan pages are conference materials, not clinical guidance. They typically include:

Programme schedules listing session titles, speakers, and dates.
Speaker biographies and their affiliations at the time.
Abstracts or short summaries of talks.
Sponsor or exhibitor lists.

The domain’s Wayback Machine captures may include pages from the Medicinal Cannabis Conference or similar events in New Zealand. These pages are historical records of what was presented at a specific date, not a living recommendation. The New Zealand Ministry of Health does not endorse conference content, and the Medicinal Cannabis Scheme (under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, as amended by the Misuse of Drugs (Medicinal Cannabis) Amendment Act 2018) does not recognise a speaker’s opinion as regulatory guidance (New Zealand Ministry of Health, 2023).

Start with the date, not the brand

Before you read a programme or a speaker biography, fix the date of the event. The date tells you which legal and clinical framework applied at the time. New Zealand’s Medicinal Cannabis Scheme only became fully operational in April 2020 under the Misuse of Drugs (Medicinal Cannabis) Regulations 2019. Anything before that date was operating under earlier exemptions or pilot studies. If you find a PDF from 2018, the scheme it describes is not the scheme that exists now. If you find a slide deck from 2021, the product list may include brands that have since been discontinued or reformulated. The Ministry of Health’s Medicinal Cannabis Agency (MCA) maintains the current register of licensed products; that register is the only authoritative list of what is legally available now (New Zealand Ministry of Health, Medicinal Cannabis Agency, “Products and licences,” accessed 2024).

When you open an archived MedCan page, the URL will often be a capture of an old conference agenda, speaker biography, or sponsor page. Your first step is to date the capture. Look at the Wayback Machine timestamp in the header, then note the date in your own record. A programme from 2021 is a historical document, not a current source. The page may mention products, speakers, or regulatory facts that have since changed. Use the date to decide whether the content could still be accurate for the year it was published, and never treat it as current guidance. For example, a 2020 speaker biography might describe a product as “the first locally manufactured oil”; by 2025 that claim is obsolete, so you must not repeat it as current fact.

How to use archived MedCan programmes and speaker pages

What this page is for

This guide shows you how to read an archived MedCan conference programme or speaker page without mistaking it for current medical guidance. MedCan was an event brand in New Zealand’s medicinal cannabis sector; its archived pages still surface in search results and capture histories. The practical problem is that a past programme, a past speaker’s claims, or a past sponsor relationship can look like today’s official advice. This page gives you a method for using those archives: how to locate the original, how to date it, how to verify what a speaker actually said, and how to separate historical record from current medical guidance. It also maps the modern regulatory landscape so you can place the archive in context.

This page does not claim to be the former operator of MedCan, and it does not reproduce old marketing claims. It treats the archived material as a historical source, not as current guidance. If you are trying to find out what a speaker said at a past MedCan event, or whether a product mentioned in an old programme is still available, this guide gives you the steps and the caveats.

What the archived MedCan programmes were

MedCan was a New Zealand medicinal cannabis conference and exhibition series that ran in the late 2010s and early 2020s. Its programmes listed speakers, session titles, sponsors and exhibitors, and were captured by the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. The pages no longer operate on the live web, but the captures remain a useful historical record of the industry at a particular moment: which companies were active, which clinicians were presenting, and what claims were being made before the Medicinal Cannabis Scheme matured.

The archived pages are not a medical source. They are a snapshot of marketing and conference content. When you find a speaker slide or a programme listing, treat it as a historical artefact, not as current guidance. A claim made in 2021 may have been superseded by a Medsafe decision, a product withdrawal, or a new systematic review. The page you are reading now is a guide to using those archived materials safely and legally.

Why the archive exists

The domain’s Wayback Machine captures show that MedCan (the Medicinal Cannabis Council of New Zealand) maintained programme and speaker pages for its conferences and symposia. Those pages listed sessions, speaker names, talk titles, and sometimes abstract text. They were removed or changed at some point, but the captures remain in the Internet Archive. This page is not the former operator and does not reproduce the old site’s claims. It shows you how to recover and read those pages as historical documents.

The archive is useful for three reasons: - It preserves what was presented to clinicians and policymakers at the time. - It lets you check whether a product or claim was presented before or after a regulatory change. - It shows the evolution of the New Zealand medicinal cannabis scheme, including which companies were active and which products were discussed.

The archive is not a source of current medical guidance. A conference talk from 2021 cannot tell you what is safe or funded in 2025, and a sponsor’s name on a session does not mean the content was independent.

What counts as a programme or speaker page

A programme page lists sessions, dates, and speakers. A speaker page gives a person’s bio and their talk title. In the MedCan archive, these pages appear under paths such as /programme, /speakers, or /medcan-programmes-speakers-archive/. The pages are static HTML snapshots of a conference website, not live pages. When you open the archived page, you are looking at a historical record, not current advice. The domain and capture history show that the programme pages were crawled and saved; that is the historical record you are working with.

How to locate archived pages

Use the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. Enter the domain and select a capture date that matches the conference year you are researching. For a programme from 2021, choose a capture from late 2021 or early 2022; the programme pages were usually updated up to the event date and then frozen. If the Wayback Machine has multiple captures, compare the earliest and latest versions to see what was added or removed. You can also use the site’s robots.txt and sitemap history, but the Wayback Machine is the most reliable public record.

If you are looking for a specific speaker, search for the speaker’s name plus the event name and “programme” in a web search. The speaker’s session title, abstract, and biography are often captured in the archived PDF or HTML. If the original page is blocked, use the Wayback Machine’s “changes” view to compare captures and identify the date the speaker was added or removed.

Why archived pages matter. A past conference programme is a snapshot of what was said and promoted at a specific time. It is not a clinical guideline and it is not current. A 2021 talk titled “Cannabis for Pain” may reflect the evidence available in 2021; by 2025, systematic reviews may have reached different conclusions. Treat the archive as a historical record, not a recommendation.

How to locate a specific programme or speaker page

The MedCan website (medcan.co.nz) was captured multiple times by the Internet Archive. The captures are not complete and some speaker pages were removed or renamed. To find a specific session:

Go to the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine (web.archive.org).
In the “Enter a URL or search terms” field, type: medcan.co.nz/programmes/ or medcan.co.nz/speakers/. The Wayback Machine will show a calendar of captures.
Select a capture date. For the 2021-2023 period, check captures from around October to December, when the annual conference programme was published. The domain’s capture history shows activity in 2022 and 2023, so those snapshots are the most reliable.
If the page is not fully rendered, use the “timemap” view to see all snapshots and choose one near the event date.

Then, to verify what a speaker actually claimed: 1. Open the archived programme page and note the session title, speaker name, and the date of the event. 2. Search for the speaker’s name plus the event name in the Internet Archive’s full-text search ( or in a general search engine. A session title is not evidence of the content; the abstract, slide deck, or recording is. 3. Check whether the archived page carries a date stamp. If the page shows a “last updated” or capture date, treat the claims as true only for that date. Do not extrapolate to today. 4. Cross-check the speaker’s claims against the primary literature cited in their talk: for example, if a speaker cites a systematic review, find that review and check its date and conclusion. If no primary source is named, treat the claim as an opinion, not evidence. 5. Compare the programme’s sponsor list with the current regulatory landscape. A sponsor or exhibitor in a past programme is not a current endorsement, and a product listed in an archived page may have changed formulation, been discontinued, or been withdrawn.