Cannabis clinics and telehealth: how they work

A “cannabis clinic” is a medical practice whose doctors or nurse practitioners mainly, or only, assess patients for cannabis medicines. Many operate by telehealth. They are legal, and their prescribers work under the same rules as any other: approval or authority from the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), state and territory medicines law, and the professional standards of the Medical Board or the Nursing and Midwifery Board.¹²

Regulators have also said, in plain terms, that some of these businesses have put profit ahead of patient safety.² This page explains the model, the concerns, and what a patient can ask. It does not name, rank or recommend any clinic.

How does the model work?

In general terms:

1. A person books a consultation, usually by phone or video. Some services use a nurse for an initial screening call before a doctor’s appointment.
2. A doctor or nurse practitioner assesses the person and decides whether to prescribe.
3. The prescriber relies on a TGA authority they already hold (the Authorised Prescriber scheme), or applies for the individual patient (the Special Access Scheme).¹
4. A prescription is issued, usually electronically, and dispensed by a pharmacy. Often the medicine is posted to the patient.
5. Follow-up consultations are scheduled.

Some businesses are “vertically integrated”. That means the same company, or related companies, may run the consultations, own or partner with the dispensing pharmacy, and supply the product. The TGA has said telehealth and vertically integrated clinics are being examined by other parts of the federal health department, outside its own review of unapproved cannabis products.³

What have regulators said?

On 9 July 2025, Ahpra and the Boards published guidance on medicinal cannabis prescribing because of “evidence of poor practice … that is leading to significant patient harm”.⁴² The guidance, last reviewed on 15 September 2026, says:²

• “The Boards are concerned that profits are being prioritised over patient safety in some medicinal cannabis prescribing practices.”
• Business models have emerged “that appear to use aggressive and sometimes misleading advertising that targets vulnerable people”.
• Some practices “only offer the prescription and supply of a single product or class of drug and use online questionnaires that coach patients to say ‘the right thing’ to justify prescribing”.
• “While these models may work well for access, there is an inherent conflict of interest” for practitioners working in an organisation that prescribes and dispenses a single medication. “A declaration of a conflict on a website is not sufficient.”

The examples of poor practice it lists are real cases:²⁴

• eight practitioners who each issued more than 10,000 prescriptions in six months, one of whom appeared to have issued more than 17,000
• consultations “lasting between a few seconds and a few minutes”
• prescribing because the patient asked, without a legitimate reason
• not taking a mental health history from patients who had a history of schizophrenia and later developed psychotic episodes
• not checking identity, including prescribing to people under 18
• several prescriptions for one patient so they could “try which one suits them”.

Ahpra says it may investigate practitioners with high rates of prescribing “even if we have not received a complaint”.² News reports at the time gave differing counts of practitioners facing action, so we do not quote a number.⁵ In September 2025 the Pharmacy Board issued matching guidance for pharmacists, with the same warning about conflicts of interest.⁶

The Department of Veterans’ Affairs gave similar reasons when it tightened its funding rules in February 2026, citing “concerning prescribing practices which are placing veterans at harm, prioritising profits over patient wellbeing”.⁷

What about advertising?

Advertising prescription medicines to the public is against the law, and that includes cannabis medicines and CBD. A clinic may advertise that it offers consultations. It may not promote the medicine or indicate that it can supply it, and the TGA says that listing conditions the medicine may treat, or offering an eligibility questionnaire, is likely to count as advertising.⁸

The TGA has enforced this. It reported 165 infringement notices worth more than $2.3 million, for alleged unlawful advertising of medicinal cannabis, over the two years to June 2024.⁹ On 30 October 2026 the TGA announced that the Federal Court had ordered a clinic company and its former director to pay $6.95 million for unlawful advertising of medicinal cannabis.¹⁰ Other cases, in which the TGA’s allegations had not yet been decided, were before the court as of November 2026. See why Australian clinics cannot advertise CBD.

For a patient, the practical point is this: a website that reads like a sales page for a prescription medicine is breaking the rules it is supposed to follow.

Has anything changed since the crackdown?

Sales data suggest so. The Penington Institute, using TGA figures, reported that units sold fell 28.5% in the second half of 2025, “the first significant decline” recorded under the current framework, and attributed it to enforcement against high-volume clinics and prescribers.¹¹ Some states have added their own rules. A law firm summary from February 2025 reports that Queensland requires prescribers to check the state prescription-monitoring system and to write one product per prescription.¹² As of November 2026 we found no confirmed law restricting cannabis prescribing to specialists in any state.

Do clinics mostly prescribe CBD?

No. Most cannabis prescribing in Australia involves products that contain THC. Industry data reported by the Penington Institute show that 85% of units sold in the first half of 2025 were products in the category with almost no CBD.¹³ CBD-only oral liquids accounted for 29,165 of the 177,762 Special Access Scheme approvals in 2024.¹⁴¹⁵

A CBD-only product is a Schedule 4 medicine. Products with meaningful THC are Schedule 8 controlled drugs, with different effects, dependence risks and consequences for driving.¹⁶ A patient is entitled to know which kind of product is being proposed. See CBD vs THC.

What does a proper telehealth consultation involve?

According to the Boards, a prescriber using telehealth must:²

• confirm the patient’s identity and date of birth
• keep assessing whether telehealth is suitable, and arrange an in-person visit if needed
• take responsibility for information gathered by someone else or by questionnaire
• not prescribe to anyone they have “never had a real-time consultation with”. The Boards “do not consider an online chat to be a synchronous consultation”.

A full assessment, including social, mental health and substance use history, “cannot be achieved in a short online consultation”.²

Two funding points. For GP telehealth in general, Medicare eligibility requires a face-to-face consultation with that GP or practice in the previous 12 months, with limited exceptions.¹⁷ And DVA will only fund a veteran’s first cannabis prescription after an in-person consultation.⁷

What can a patient ask?

These questions follow from the standards above. A service that follows the rules should be able to answer them.

• Who will I speak to, and are they a doctor or a nurse practitioner? (Registration can be checked on Ahpra’s public register.)²
• How long is the consultation, and is it by video or phone?
• Will you contact my usual GP, with my permission?
• Do the prescriber or the business have a financial link to the pharmacy or the product? How is that conflict managed?
• Can I have the prescription filled at a pharmacy of my choice?
• Is the product CBD-only, or does it contain THC?
• What are all the fees: first consultation, follow-ups, repeat prescriptions, and the medicine itself?
• What is the plan for review, and for stopping if it does not help?

The Boards treat several things as poor practice: being offered a range of products to “test” what you prefer, large quantities, early repeats, or a prescription after a few minutes.²

Where do complaints go?

Concerns about a registered practitioner’s conduct can be raised with Ahpra, which handles notifications about practitioners.² Suspected unlawful advertising of a medicine is a matter for the TGA.⁸

This page is general information, not medical or legal advice. Laws and evidence change; we show the date we last checked the facts at the top of every page. Talk to your doctor or pharmacist before starting, stopping or changing any medicine.

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