Australia has a long history of treating cannabis as a non-criminal offense, prioritizing harm reduction over criminalizing users. Support for legalization has continued to grow, as has cannabis use in the country.
On February 24, 2016, Australia legalized medical cannabis at the federal level. Prior to that, each state had the authority to legislate on the therapeutic uses of cannabis.
Cannabis remains illegal at the federal level in Australia, although the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) legalized cannabis use for adults in 2020 and South Australia has decriminalized cannabis possession.
Medical
Medical cannabis is legal in Australia.
Where in the world is cannabis legal?The Australian medical cannabis program is administered by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), but patients can only access it through a licensed healthcare professional.
According to the Commonwealth Department of Health, Nabiximols (a cannabinoid spray marketed under the name Sativex) is the only cannabis-based product considered a registered medicine in the country. No cannabis-based products are subsidized by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), and the price is set by the supplier. This also means that the TGA has not verified the safety, quality, or efficacy of these medications.
Patients who wish to access these medications can import them from Canada or Europe, including cannabis flower for vaping, oils, liquids, and oral sprays. Medical cannabis products must be purchased at a pharmacy, but they are often out of stock and must be ordered.
Under Australian law, doctors can apply to the TGA’s «Special Access Scheme» to obtain access to unapproved medications such as cannabis. Doctors who have also been certified as authorized prescribers do not need this approval to gain access. It is unclear exactly to what extent this special certification is necessary or how it speeds up the process, and at least one estimate suggests that 98% of cannabis prescriptions are written by general practitioners who are not pre-authorized to recommend cannabis.
A physician who submits an application to the TGA on behalf of a patient must provide a clinical justification. According to the TGA, the justification must include:
In addition, starting in early 2021, it became legal to purchase over-the-counter CBD oil in Australia.
According to TGA regulations, there are currently «no restrictions on the medical conditions for which a prescriber may apply through the SAS for access to an unapproved medical cannabis product for their patient, provided that the prescriber has appropriate knowledge of the condition being treated and of the medicinal cannabis product they wish to prescribe.».
That said, the TGA notes that it may request supporting evidence for certain new indications.
Conditions for which medical cannabis may be prescribed in Australia include:
There is currently only one cannabis-based product that is a registered medicine in Australia: Nabiximols (marketed under the name Sativex).
There is, however, a wide range of unapproved cannabis-based medicinal products—including oil, tinctures, extracts, and flowers—that are not listed in the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods (ARTG). Physicians must obtain the patient’s informed consent before they can apply to the TGA for access to an unapproved product.
But "unapproved" or "unregistered" does not mean "illegal.".
Australian law permits the importation of unapproved medications for use by an individual or their immediate family under the personal importation scheme. The law allows for the importation of a three-month supply, subject to certain restrictions.
L’Office of Drug Control has published a list of manufacturers and suppliers of medical cannabis products available in Australia. According to the’Office of Drug Control, these products can only be obtained through the Special Access Scheme, by a licensed healthcare professional, or as part of a clinical trial.
The high cost of medical cannabis is one of the main barriers to access in Australia.
Estimates vary—and depend largely on the type and quantity of cannabis product—but ABC News reported in February 2020 that medical cannabis can easily cost patients $600 a month. The Australian cannabis education platform Honahlee estimated in March 2021 that the average monthly cost of medical cannabis is $384 per patient.
In July, the online medical cannabis marketplace CanView reported that medical cannabis prices had fallen by 11% compared to the previous year and that the number of available products had more than doubled.
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