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Is CBD legal in Australia?

CBD is legal in Australia with a prescription. As of November 2026 there is no lawful CBD medicine to buy without one.

Facts checked 13 November 20266 min readHow we research

Yes, CBD is legal in Australia, but only with a prescription. Cannabidiol (CBD) is a Schedule 4 prescription-only medicine under the national Poisons Standard.1 A category for pharmacist-only CBD exists on paper, but as of November 2026 no product has been approved for it, so there is no CBD medicine that can lawfully be sold without a prescription.2

What does the law actually say?

Medicines and poisons in Australia are sorted into numbered schedules by a Commonwealth instrument called the Poisons Standard. The schedule decides who can supply a substance and how. The current edition commenced on 1 October 2026.1

CBD appears in three places:

Product Schedule What that means
CBD where CBD is 98% or more of all cannabinoids Schedule 4 Prescription only
Low-dose oral CBD that meets extra conditions and is on the national register Schedule 3 Pharmacist only, no prescription. No product qualifies as of November 2026
Cannabis products with more than 2% other cannabinoids Schedule 8 Controlled drug, prescription with tighter controls

The Schedule 4 and Schedule 3 entries are set out in the Poisons Standard.1 The Schedule 8 position follows from reading the CBD entries together with the cannabis and THC entries.1 For the full wording, see CBD scheduling explained.

The states and territories apply these schedules through their own medicines and poisons laws. That is why supply without a prescription is an offence under state law, not just a breach of a federal rule.3

Yes. A doctor or nurse practitioner registered in Australia can prescribe CBD.4

Two cannabis medicines are fully registered in Australia. One, Epidyolex, is a CBD medicine approved for seizures in two rare forms of epilepsy.5 The other, Sativex, contains THC as well as CBD.6 See the registered cannabis medicines.

Almost every other CBD product prescribed in Australia is an “unapproved” medicine. That is a legal term. It means the product is not on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods (ARTG) and the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has not assessed it for safety, quality or effectiveness.4 A prescriber gets access for a patient through the Special Access Scheme or the Authorised Prescriber scheme. Patients cannot apply themselves.4

The TGA says prescribers may use these pathways “if all other clinically appropriate treatment options on the ARTG have been considered”.4 The pathway is described in how legal access to CBD works.

In practice, no.

In December 2020 the TGA announced that low-dose CBD would move to Schedule 3, which is the pharmacist-only category.7 But the Schedule 3 entry only covers products “included in the Register”, meaning products the TGA has assessed and approved.1 The TGA said in August 2025 that no complete application for such a product had been submitted, and in March 2026 it confirmed that only two cannabis medicines were registered, neither of them a Schedule 3 product.28

A CBD product that is not on the register stays in Schedule 4, however low the dose.1 The full story is on Can you buy CBD over the counter in Australia?

What about websites that sell CBD without a prescription?

Any product with more than 75 mg of CBD per kilogram is at least a Schedule 4 medicine.1 Selling it without a prescription is unlawful supply under state and territory medicines law.3 In New South Wales, cannabis products that fall outside Schedules 3, 4 and 8 are prohibited drugs under the Drug Misuse and Trafficking Act 1985.9

Some products sold openly are hemp seed oil, which is a food. It can lawfully contain 75 mg/kg or less of CBD, which is a trace amount.1 See buying CBD online and CBD oil vs hemp seed oil.

No. Cannabinoids are on the list of drugs that cannot be imported without both a licence and a permit.10 The TGA says cannabis products “are excluded from personal importation”, the scheme that lets people bring in some other medicines for their own use.11 The Office of Drug Control has warned that such imports “will be seized at the border”.3

There is one narrow exception for travellers carrying their own prescribed, pharmacy-dispensed medicine.11 See importing CBD from overseas and travelling with CBD.

The limits are ratios of the cannabinoids in the product, not percentages of the bottle.

  • Schedule 4 CBD: CBD must be 98% or more of the total cannabinoid content. Other cannabinoids must be ones naturally found in cannabis and make up 2% or less.1
  • Schedule 3 CBD: the same 98% and 2% rule, and THC “can only comprise 1% of the total cannabinoid content”.1
  • Above 2% other cannabinoids: the product falls outside the CBD entries. If it is a lawful medicine at all, it is a Schedule 8 controlled drug.1

This matters for two reasons. First, a lawful CBD product can still contain a small amount of THC.12 Second, a product described as “CBD-dominant” is a Schedule 8 medicine and can contain meaningful THC.13 THC is what roadside drug tests look for. See CBD and driving.

The pharmacist-only category is limited to “persons aged 18 years and over”.1 Prescription CBD can be prescribed to children. For patients under 18, the TGA expects the prescriber to provide supporting evidence from a paediatrician or relevant specialist.2 See CBD for children and teenagers.

Do the rules differ between states?

The scheduling is national, so CBD is prescription-only everywhere. Some states add their own requirements for prescribers. The TGA notes that “in certain states, such as Tasmania, there are additional requirements for cannabidiol products which apply, even when in Schedule 4”.11 Driving laws also differ. Our state and territory pages cover the detail, starting with New South Wales and Victoria.

No state or territory has a legal retail market for non-medical cannabis or CBD. The ACT allows adults to possess and grow small amounts of cannabis, but it has no lawful retail supply.14 See cannabis legalisation in Australia.

Is the law likely to change?

Possibly, but nothing has been decided. The TGA reviewed the rules for unapproved medicinal cannabis in 2025. It told its scheduling committee in March 2026 that reform options “may include a review of the current scheduling of cannabis, CBD and THC”.8 As of the latest TGA documents we could find (mid-2026), no reform had been decided.15

Footnotes

  1. Australian Government. Therapeutic Goods (Poisons Standard, October 2026) Instrument 2026, Schedules 3, 4 and 8. https://www.legislation.gov.au/F2026L01327/asmade/2026-09-30/text/original/pdf ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12

  2. Therapeutic Goods Administration. Consultation paper: reviewing the safety and regulatory oversight of unapproved medicinal cannabis products, August 2025. https://consultations.tga.gov.au/medicines-regulation-division/test-soms/user_uploads/final---consultation-paper---medicinal-cannabis-review---august-2025.pdf ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  3. Office of Drug Control. Consumer warning on CBD and hemp oil imports, 15 May 2018. https://www.odc.gov.au/node/1328 ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  4. Therapeutic Goods Administration. Medicinal cannabis access pathways. https://www.tga.gov.au/products/unapproved-therapeutic-goods/medicinal-cannabis/access-pathways ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  5. Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee. Cannabidiol public summary document, March 2026. https://www.pbs.gov.au/industry/pbac/psd/2026/03/cannabidiol-psd-march-2026-a1155.pdf?variant=3 ↩

  6. Therapeutic Goods Administration. Australian public assessment report for nabiximols, 2013. https://www.tga.gov.au/sites/default/files/auspar-nabiximols-130927.pdf ↩

  7. Therapeutic Goods Administration. Over-the-counter access to low dose cannabidiol, media release, 15 December 2020. https://www.tga.gov.au/news/media-releases/over-counter-access-low-dose-cannabidiol ↩

  8. Therapeutic Goods Administration. Paper to the scheduling advisory committee, 18 March 2026, released as FOI 26-2886. https://www.tga.gov.au/sites/default/files/2026-06/FOI%2026-2886.PDF ↩ ↩2

  9. NSW Health. Cannabis medicines: frequently asked questions. https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/pharmaceutical/cannabismedicines/Pages/faqs.aspx ↩

  10. Australian Government. Customs (Prohibited Imports) Regulations 1956, regulation 5 and Schedule 4. https://www.legislation.gov.au/F1996B03651/latest/text ↩

  11. Therapeutic Goods Administration. Medicinal cannabis importation and the traveller’s exemption, updated 29 January 2025. https://www.tga.gov.au/resources/explore-topic/medicinal-cannabis-hub/medicinal-cannabis-information-patients/medicinal-cannabis-importation-and-travellers-exemption ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  12. Victorian Government. Medicinal cannabis and driving: patient fact sheet. https://edge.sitecorecloud.io/stategovernc45d-cftw-production-c9ca/media/Project/TransportWebsite/Forms/medicinal-cannabis-and-driving-patient-factsheet.pdf ↩

  13. Therapeutic Goods Administration. Medicinal cannabis (unapproved therapeutic goods). https://www.tga.gov.au/products/unapproved-therapeutic-goods/medicinal-cannabis ↩

  14. ACT Government. Cannabis. https://www.act.gov.au/cannabis ↩

  15. Therapeutic Goods Administration. Update to the sector on the medicinal cannabis review, July 2026. https://www.tga.gov.au/sites/default/files/2026-07/update-tga-sector.pdf ↩

Common questions

Is CBD oil legal in Australia without a prescription?

No. CBD is a prescription-only medicine. The law also allows low-dose CBD to be sold by a pharmacist without a prescription, but only if the product is on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods, and as of November 2026 none is.

How much THC can a CBD product legally contain?

The law uses a ratio, not a percentage of the bottle. In a prescription-only (Schedule 4) CBD product, CBD must be at least 98% of all the cannabinoids, and other cannabinoids can be no more than 2%. Anything with more is a Schedule 8 controlled drug.

Is the claim that CBD under 0.3% THC is legal true in Australia?

No. Australian law has no such rule. Whether a CBD product is lawful here depends on the conditions in the Poisons Standard, a prescription, and how it was supplied. A THC figure taken from another country's law does not make a product legal in Australia.

Is CBD legal in the ACT, where cannabis is decriminalised?

The ACT allows adults to possess and grow small amounts of cannabis for personal use. It did not create any lawful shop or retail supply, and Commonwealth medicines law still applies. CBD oil in the ACT still needs a prescription.

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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