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CBD vapes and CBD flower

Inhaled CBD reaches the blood in minutes, but it is prescription-only in Australia and carries device and lung risks. What the law, the trials and the TGA say.

Facts checked 13 November 20267 min readHow we research

Inhaled CBD, whether vaporised dried flower or a vape liquid, reaches the blood within minutes. In Australia it is available only on prescription, the regulator has flagged safety concerns about vaping devices, and there are very few trials of inhaled CBD on its own. Flower and vape products also commonly contain some THC, which matters for driving and drug tests.

What are these products?

  • Dried flower is the dried flowering top of the cannabis plant. “CBD flower” means flower from plants bred to be high in CBD and low in THC. It is heated in a vaporiser, which turns the cannabinoids into a vapour without burning the plant.
  • Vape liquids and cartridges hold a cannabis extract that a battery-powered device heats into an aerosol.

The plant makes CBD in an acid form called CBDA. Heat converts CBDA into CBD, a change called decarboxylation.1 See how CBD is extracted and made.

As of November 2026 they are lawful only as prescribed medicines.

  • Prescription is required. CBD for therapeutic use is a Schedule 4 (prescription only) medicine when CBD is 98% or more of the product’s cannabinoid content.2
  • The pharmacist-only category excludes inhaled products. The Schedule 3 entry covers only “oral, oromucosal and sublingual preparations”.2 Even if a low-dose CBD product is one day approved for sale by pharmacists, it will not be a vape.
  • Flower is classed by its cannabinoid mix. Flower is whole plant material, so it carries whatever cannabinoids the plant made. If cannabinoids other than CBD are more than 2% of the total, it falls outside the CBD entries and under the cannabis entries, which makes it a Schedule 8 controlled drug.2 That reading comes from the schedule entries taken together.
  • Inhaled forms can be prescribed as unapproved medicines. The TGA’s list of dosage forms for unapproved cannabis medicines includes “herb, dried (for vaporisation)”, “inhalation”, “inhalation, pressurised” and “extract, concentrated”. Dried herb was one of the three most commonly prescribed forms as at 31 July 2025, across all cannabis medicines.3
  • Devices are regulated separately. Four devices for use with medicinal cannabis have been approved in Australia. The TGA notes that none of them can be used for vaping cannabis oils.3

Australia also has separate laws on nicotine vapes and vaping devices. This page does not cover them. For the wider legal picture see is CBD legal in Australia? and buying CBD online.

How fast and how much?

Inhaling is the quickest route into the blood. The World Health Organization’s review reports that aerosolised CBD produces peak blood levels in 5 to 10 minutes.1 The TGA makes the same comparison for cannabis medicines in general: effect within 5 to 10 minutes when inhaled, against about an hour by mouth.3

More of the dose is absorbed, too. About 31% of smoked CBD reaches the bloodstream (the range across people was roughly 11% to 45%), compared with about 6% of a swallowed dose taken while fasting.41 The 31% figure comes from smoking. We did not find a properly measured figure for vaporised CBD.

A wide range like 11% to 45% is a reminder that an inhaled dose is hard to pin down. How deeply and how long a person inhales changes what they get. The TGA lists “a risk of inaccurate dosing” as a drawback of inhaled forms.3 See ways to take CBD compared.

What has research on inhaled CBD found?

Not much, and what there is does not favour CBD on its own.

  • Migraine. A crossover trial at the University of California San Diego had 92 people treat 247 migraine attacks with vaporised flower that was THC-dominant (6% THC), CBD-dominant (11% CBD), a mix of the two, or placebo. The mix beat placebo for pain relief at two hours. In the authors’ words, “CBD only was not superior to placebo for any outcomes at 2 hours.”5 See CBD for migraine.
  • Driving. In an on-road study of 26 occasional cannabis users, vaporised CBD-dominant cannabis (13.75 mg CBD) did not change lane weaving compared with placebo, while THC-containing cannabis did. The authors cautioned that the CBD dose was low and the result could not rule out a meaningful effect.6

Almost all the trials that tested CBD for a medical condition used swallowed CBD. See how we grade the evidence.

What are the risks of inhaling?

The TGA set these out in its 2025 review of unapproved cannabis medicines:3

  • Lung injury. Inhaling through a device “has generally been thought to be safer than smoking”, but it has been linked to harm such as EVALI (e-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury).
  • Batteries. Vaping devices have been linked to overheating, explosions, burns and accidental activation. The TGA reports an increase in fires, explosions and burns from device batteries.
  • Chemicals and metals. What comes out of a device depends on the liquid, the power and the coil temperature. Higher power can increase the production of harmful compounds, and metal from the heating coil can end up in what is inhaled.
  • No safety rules for unapproved devices. The TGA says there are no safety requirements in place for unapproved devices used with medicinal cannabis, such as child-safe mechanisms. The quality standard for the medicine, TGO 93, does not cover devices at all, which the TGA calls “a potential safety gap”.

The same paper notes that oral forms, usually liquids, “may avoid effects on the respiratory system” and support accurate dosing.3

How reliable are vape products?

In a United States study of 84 CBD products bought online, vape liquids were the most often mislabelled: 21 of 24 were more than 10% off their stated CBD content. THC was detected in 18 of the 84 products overall.7 In a later study of 202 products, vape products labelled “full spectrum” were less likely than tinctures to match that claim.8

Prescribed flower in Australia has to meet the TGO 93 quality standard, with one difference from oils. Because plant material varies naturally, its active ingredients may be within 80% to 120% of the labelled amount, a wider band than the 90% to 110% allowed for other forms. Flower must also pass limits for pesticides, heavy metals, mould toxins and foreign matter, and inhaled products must meet microbiological limits.9 See quality standards for Australian CBD products.

Driving and drug tests

This is the point most likely to catch people out. Roadside tests look for THC, not CBD. A product does not have to be “high THC” to cause a positive result.

In one study, people who vaporised 100 mg of pure CBD produced no confirmed positive urine tests. When the same study used CBD-dominant cannabis containing 0.39% THC (3.7 mg of THC), two of six participants returned confirmed positive tests.10

The drug-driving rules for prescribed THC are strict and differ between states. See CBD and driving, CBD and drug tests and, for athletes, CBD and sport.

If inhaled CBD has been suggested to you

  • Ask your prescriber why an inhaled form is preferred to an oral one, and exactly how much THC the product contains.
  • Ask which device is intended and whether it is one of the devices approved in Australia.
  • Tell your prescriber about any lung or heart condition.
  • Store flower, cartridges and devices locked away from children and pets. See storing CBD.
  • The usual CBD cautions still apply, including medicine interactions and pregnancy. See CBD drug interactions and who should not take CBD?

Footnotes

  1. World Health Organization, Expert Committee on Drug Dependence. Cannabidiol (CBD) critical review report, 2018. https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/controlled-substances/whocbdreportmay2018-2.pdf ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  2. Australian Government. Therapeutic Goods (Poisons Standard, October 2026) Instrument 2026, cannabidiol and cannabis entries. https://www.legislation.gov.au/F2026L01327/asmade/2026-09-30/text/original/pdf ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  3. Therapeutic Goods Administration. Consultation: Reviewing the safety and regulatory oversight of unapproved medicinal cannabis products, version 1.0, 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 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  4. Millar SA, et al. Systematic review of the pharmacokinetics of cannabidiol in humans, 2018. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30534073/ ↩

  5. Schuster NM, et al. Vaporised cannabis versus placebo for acute migraine, randomised controlled trial (University of California San Diego). https://escholarship.org/uc/item/89m6r4pt ↩

  6. Arkell TR, et al. On-road driving study of vaporised THC-dominant, CBD-dominant and mixed cannabis. JAMA, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2020.21218 ↩

  7. Bonn-Miller MO, et al. Labeling accuracy of cannabidiol extracts sold online. JAMA, 2017. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2661569 ↩

  8. Gidal BE, et al. Product labeling accuracy and contamination analysis of commercially available cannabidiol product samples. Frontiers in Pharmacology, 2024. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10982813/ ↩

  9. Australian Government. Therapeutic Goods (Standard for Medicinal Cannabis) (TGO 93) Order 2017, compilation of 6 December 2022, sections 12 and 16 and Schedule 1. https://www.legislation.gov.au/F2017L00286/latest/text ↩

  10. Study of urinary drug testing after oral and vaporised cannabidiol and vaporised CBD-dominant cannabis. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31682266/ ↩

Common questions

Are CBD vapes legal in Australia?

Only on prescription. CBD is a prescription medicine, and the pharmacist-only category that exists in law is limited to products taken by mouth, so it could never cover a vape. A prescriber can apply to supply an inhaled cannabis medicine as an unapproved product. Buying a CBD vape from a shop or overseas website is not lawful.

Is CBD flower legal in Australia?

Dried cannabis flower can be lawfully supplied only as a prescribed medicine. Flower is whole plant material, so its legal schedule depends on its mix of cannabinoids. Unless CBD makes up at least 98% of the cannabinoids, it is treated as a Schedule 8 controlled drug.

Is vaping CBD safer than smoking it?

The TGA says inhaling with a device has generally been thought safer than smoking, but it has still been linked to harm, including a serious lung injury called EVALI, burns from batteries and exposure to metals from heating coils. Neither is risk-free, and oral forms avoid effects on the lungs.

Will vaping CBD show up on a drug test?

Pure CBD has not caused confirmed positive tests in studies. CBD-dominant cannabis is different. In one study, vaporised cannabis containing 0.39% THC produced confirmed positive urine tests in two of six participants. Roadside tests look for THC, so flower or vape products containing any THC are a risk.

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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