But after his daughter went to police and said she was having trouble sleeping, suffered severe headaches and felt unsteady on her feet, last November officers raided Ryan Franzi's home and clinic.

His daughter told police Franzi, 39, would put three drops of "jungle juice" under her tongue almost every night and also took some himself.

Police say she told them she avoided taking the liquid when no-one was watching, and sometimes spat it out before going to bed.

Franzi appeared in the ACT Supreme Court on Wednesday, where he took the stand to give evidence.

He has already pleaded guilty to the four charges against him, including manufacturing a controlled drug, drug trafficking, possession, and supply of cannabis to a child.

Franzi told the court his daughter's complaints to police were the first he had heard of any negative effects of the cannabis, despite asking her explicitly how she was sleeping.

He said he had manufactured the products at his clients' request, because they were in pain, their medicines had stopped working, and he felt the laws around cannabis would soon change.

"If I had waited until it had been legal, it would've been too late," he said, adding that many of his clients were terminally ill.

Franzi said he had learned how to make the oil and tinctures by researching on the internet and consulting with others, after hearing some products bought on the internet were of a lesser quality.

But under questioning by Crown prosecutor Trent Hickey, Franzi conceded he had no qualifications or training in chemistry, biology or physiology, and did not know how cannabis would affect a child's brain, or interact with other drugs such as opiates.

"You were just hoping for the best, weren't you?" Mr Hickey asked.

To which Franzi replied: "Yes."

Franzi's sentencing comes within a week of the ACT government announcing a medical cannabis scheme would soon begin in the territory, his barrister Alyn Doig told the court.

Along with a news report on the scheme, Mr Doig handed to Justice John Burns an article on Mark Heinrich, noting what was "not done" to the Canberra-based medical marijuana campaigner.

Mr Heinrich supplied cannabis oil to a two-and-a-half year old girl in Sydney; after an investigation by ACT police there was no prosecution.

In the raid of the Torrens Street clinic owned by Franzi's father, police found bottles of cannabis oil and tinctures, and about 700 grams of cannabis in a cooler bag.

The tincture was sold for $120 a bottle, while the oil went for $200, but on Wednesday Franzi said he was not motivated by profits.

"This is not the usual type of drug case," Mr Doig told the court.

"Whether or not he was qualified, does not detract from his evidence that he was acting on a compassionate basis."

Franzi will return to the Supreme Court next week for sentencing.