🇦🇺 Australia Overview
Australia’s estimated medical market size for 2025 is over AUD$946 million, and is expected to increase to over AUD$XXX by 2029 (click here for more information about premium data packages, including market sizing forecasts).
Australia’s medical cannabis market has seen explosive growth over the past few years. Outside of the US, it is rivalled only by Germany in market size, and it remains one of the fastest-growing cannabis markets globally. Telemedicine and product delivery have been key to growth in Australia, mirroring trends seen elsewhere.
Wide-reaching regulatory reform of the medical cannabis industry is likely in the coming year, with a public consultation process to shape reform already underway. Reasons for this include prescription and advertising practices by cannabis clinics, which are under intense scrutiny from media and regulators, and concerns over product quality and regulatory oversight.
Australia is a major importer of medical cannabis, particularly from Canada. Its domestic cultivation and manufacturing industry already supplies a major proportion of the market however. Competition and quality variation between domestic and international cannabis are strong themes within the industry.
🇦🇺 Regulations
Since 2016, medicinal cannabis treatment and production has been federally legal in Australia.. The sector is regulated by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), which approves products and prescriptions, and the Office of Drug Control (ODC), which issues licences and permits for cultivation and production. Implementation is left to individual states, so laws on patient access and commercial activity vary across the country.
A review of the entire medical cannabis system in the country by the TGA is now taking place, with significant potential consequences for the industry. The main focus areas of potential reform are:
- Regulatory oversight of medical cannabis products and access pathways
- Potential safety risks of high-THC products
- The growing number of cannabis-specific telehealth clinics
The proposals for new policies currently under consideration are:
- Tightening rules on SAS-B and AP access pathways, possibly restricting unapproved product access.
- Shifting responsibility for safety monitoring from prescribers to product sponsors.
- Incentivising companies to conduct clinical trials and seek ARTG registration.
- Stronger enforcement of quality standards (labelling, stability, manufacturing).
- Potential restrictions on telehealth prescribing.
- Possible limits on THC content or additional prescribing justification.
Public consultation took place until October 7th 2025. A number of regulatory options are now being developed, incorporating feedback from stakeholders.
🇦🇺 Patient Access
Who Can Prescribe?
All licenced physicians in Australia are eligible to prescribe medical cannabis, however the process depends which programme they are prescribing under. The two programmes are the Special Access Scheme (SAS) and the Authorised Prescriber (AP) programme.
Special Access Scheme:
Under the SAS, medical practitioners can prescribe/import medical cannabis for a single patient on a case-by-case basis.
Health practitioners must apply for approval from the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) and must provide a clinical justification for the use of medical cannabis, including that other products in the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods (ARTG) are not suitable for the treatment of the specific patient.
Authorised Prescriber:
All physicians can apply to become an AP, allowing them to prescribe specific classes of medical cannabis products for certain indications and to certain categories of patients.
To become an AP, medical practitioners must obtain approval from the Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) or endorsement from a specialist college.
APs can prescribe medicinal cannabis products to their patients without needing to notify the TGA each time, however they must report the number of patients they treat every six months.
Telemedicine
Out of 40+ telemedicine clinics that prescribe medical cannabis identified by Prohibition Partners, the clear leader in website traffic and engagement is Montu’s Alternaleaf, which saw over 400,000 unique visitors in July 2025.
Products
From analysing the number of items prescribed in each product category across 2023 and 2024, combined with detailed pricing data on different products, Prohibition Partners was able to create an accurate estimate of the breakdown of sales in individual product categories. In this categorisation we call products “High THC” if they have an overwhelming majority of THC compared to CBD (e.g. 20:1). Sales of High THC flower outstripped those of the next most popular product category by approximately a factor of ten across the period.
In the extract-based category, the most notable trend over the period is the rise of High THC vapes, which became the highest-selling product category in the market over the period, aside from High THC flower. High CBD remains the most popular cannabinoid ratio in oil products over the period.
Imports & Exports
Though Australia imports medical cannabis from many different countries, the overwhelming volume of products come from Canada. In 2023 and 2024, Canadian imports were over triple the volume of all other imports combined. Though data is not yet available on other countries for 2025, Canadian data shows that the trend of increased export volumes to Australia continue to grow significantly.
Australia only exports to three countries in notable quantities – Germany, New Zealand and the UK. Available data suggests that there will be no significant growth in total export volumes in 2025 compared to 2024, as a rise in exports to Germany is balanced by a drop in exports to the UK.
🇦🇺 Domestic Production
Australia currently has 40 companies licensed for cultivation of medical cannabis. 2022 and 2023 saw approximately 25 tonnes grown in each year, while 2024 saw a significant increase, with 41 tonnes cultivated.
A significantly higher proportion of cultivated volumes are held in stock at the end of each year, compared to the proportion of volume held of imports, likely indicating higher demand for imported products.