🇳🇿New Zealand Overview
Australia’s estimated medical market size for 2025 is over NZ$78 million, and is expected to increase to over NZ$XXX by 2029 (click here for more information about premium data packages, including market sizing forecasts).
The medical cannabis industry in New Zealand has seen significant growth in both production and consumption since 2020, when a significant piece of new legislation opened access for patients and licensing for producers. The same year saw a referendum for adult-use legalisation narrowly rejected, setting the country on a medical-only path of development.
The rise of telemedicine and cannabis-specific clinics has driven growth in the country’s medical cannabis market. The sector is not experiencing the same controversy and backlash as seen in neighbouring Australia, likely because the pace of growth has not been as explosive as in Australia.
With a relatively small total addressable market domestically, local producers and brands are focused on exports to scale their businesses, though the country still supplies most domestic demand through lower-cost imports.
🇳🇿 Regulations
In 2016, access to imported non-pharmaceutical cannabis products was opened up. Doctors required ministerial approval for prescriptions of these products on a patient-by-patient basis, which restricted their use for treatment.
In 2020, New Zealand implemented the new Medicinal Cannabis Scheme, a significant piece of legislation that has shaped the industry in the country. This allowed all doctors to prescribe cannabis without seeking prior approval, while also facilitating the establishment of medical cannabis production in the country.
In 2024 new regulations were implemented, with the primary outcomes being that New Zealand’s medical cannabis producers could export more easily (having only to meet the importing country’s quality guidelines for products, rather than New Zealand’s), and that the promotion and advertising of medical cannabis treatment in the country was heavily restricted.
Despite adult-use legalisation only being rejected by a narrow margin in 2020, there has been no movement towards holding another similar vote. The question of adult-use legalisation is currently outside mainstream political discourse in the country, with the focus on developing medical cannabis access and production in a constructive and sustainable manner.
🇳🇿 Patient Access
Who Can Prescribe?
All licensed physicians in New Zealand are eligible to prescribe medical cannabis.
What are the treatable pathologies?
Any condition for which medical cannabis treatment is deemed appropriate, and for which other treatments have been ineffective.
Medical cannabis should not be used as a first-line treatment.
Telemedicine
There are only eight online clinics in New Zealand, of which the most popular (by web traffic) is Cannabis Clinic.
🇳🇿 Products
Available data on monthly prescriptions since 2017 shows a clear preference for THC-only products, which are almost exclusively flower products. CBD only products are the second-most prescribed category, with a minority of products prescribed containing both THC and CBD.
Product prices are approximately NZ$11-14 per gram of flower, and NZ$5-10 per millilitre of oil
🇳🇿Imports & Exports
The New Zealand domestic market has always been supplied via imports, and it will continue to be, due to the cost of imported products being significantly cheaper than domestic production.
Exports from New Zealand have been consistently growing since the inception of the production industry in the country, and Prohibition Partners expects the rate of growth to increase post-2024 due to the implementation of new regulations which eased quality requirements on products being exported from the country.
🇳🇿 Domestic Production
Although there are many companies licensed to produce medical cannabis in New Zealand, there are only a small number which are commercially active.