I don’t think he’s saying it’s a first. He’s just reporting a right wing newspaper’s outrage at a subject being covered by a popular soap opera. 
The Heights already has a main character who is doing exactly that too, played by Marcus Graham. But looking at their poor ratings, who would actually know that? 
Unable to read it .
Cool. Pay for the article if you want to read it.
Here is an excerpt from the paywall article (includes some spoilers)
In the latest boundary pushing plot for the popular soap, Orpheus Pledger’s character, Mason, resorts to making his own cannabis at home to help his younger sister Raffy (Olivia Deeble) who suffers from debilitating epilepsy.
“The sole reason Mason decided to do this was to help his little sister because she is going through epilepsy,” Pledger told Confidential.
“He couldn’t see any other way and so alternative measures were taken. It has nothing to do with recreational use.”
Producers brought on Lisa Todd, nurse and Epilepsy Action Australia spokeswoman, to consult on the storyline to ensure it is accurate.
According to the Epilepsy Action Australia website it is possible with special authorisation to obtain medical marijuana from a doctor, so growing your own at home doesn’t have to be the only way. I Home & Away mentions this.
Will McDonald (Jett) is such a good actor. His current storyline is brilliant and really well written. Great to see such a powerful storyline for Shane (John) and Emily (Marilyn) too.
I can definitely see improvements in the storylines lately.
Olivia Deeble has quit Home and Away after securing a role in new Disney movie Secret Society of Second Born Royals, playing Princess Roxana, however her character Raffy will continue to be seen on air for a few more months. She will be based in Toronto, Canada in the next two months shooting the movie, which will screen on the new Disney+ streaming service.
After? Or did she score the movie following her departure?
H&A films so far ahead of screening. You find out actors have left when they have scored a new role but are still on screen for ages.
The Flinders Ranges episodes will be shown next Tuesday to Thursday (May 28 to 30).
Hi, was Eve Morey ever in Home And Away?
According to IMDB, she was a guest in one episode in 2007.
The guy who played Jasmine’s therapist, I swear he played a police officer before.
Socratis Otto played Robert Robertson about eight years ago. His character had some sort of relationship with Leah from memory.
Interesting they stopped Home and Away The Early Years for some reason but they have something called Home and Away Births Deaths and Marriages and it has episodes from the early 2000’s … I thought they didn’t have rights and that was why early years stuff stopped?
Seven owns Home & Away so how could they lose the rights?
As a result, we went further up the hierarchy and spoke to Seven’s Director of Network Programming, Angus Ross , who has confirmed to BTTB that, unfortunately, there will seemingly be no further airings for the foreseeable future:
“We have reached a batch of episodes where all the available “runs” under existing agreements have been used – so we can’t play them.”
When we asked whether there were any plans to overcome this obstacle, Angus continued:
“I am not aware of any negotiations. It would not make sense financially at present.”
Existing agreements with who ?
That article is 2 years old bud.
I know, it was updated in late 2018 at the bottom, but yeah was in response to “owning the rights”
Possibly the residuals for actors.
A new character Mackenzie, played by Emily Weir makes her debut on Thursday.
She is Dean’s sister.