Only in one situation: you are a traveller arriving with CBD that a medical practitioner prescribed for you and a pharmacist dispensed. CBD bought from a shop or website overseas cannot be brought in, and CBD cannot be posted to you.12
What is the traveller’s exemption?
Cannabinoids are prohibited imports. The customs regulations make an exception for a drug carried by “a passenger on board a ship or aircraft” when it is needed for that passenger’s medical treatment, was prescribed by a medical practitioner, and was supplied in line with the prescription.2
For cannabis medicines, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) sets these conditions:1
- no more than 3 months’ supply
- an actual prescription from a medical practitioner, which the TGA calls “a higher standard of documentary evidence” than the letter accepted for other medicines
- the product must have been dispensed under that prescription “by dispensing through a pharmacist, rather than supply through some other form of retail”.
The exemption also covers a passenger in your care, such as a child.2
Can tourists bring CBD they bought legally at home?
Not if it was bought off the shelf. In many countries CBD is sold in shops without a prescription. Because the TGA requires pharmacist dispensing under a prescription, retail CBD does not meet the conditions, even with a doctor’s letter.1
What should you do at the border?
- keep the medicine in its original packaging with the dispensing label
- carry the prescription
- declare the medicine to the Australian Border Force on arrival
- not sell or give it to anyone else
- take any leftover medicine with you when you leave.
State possession rules still apply once you are in the country, and they differ for products that contain THC.1
Can a friend bring it, or can I have it posted?
No. The exemption is for the passenger’s own treatment, or that of someone in their care.2 The TGA says cannabis products “are excluded from personal importation, other than through the traveller’s exemption”.1 Goods sent by mail can be seized.5
The TGA page describing these rules was last updated in January 2025, and we read it from an archived copy. Check the current TGA advice before you travel.
Read the full guide: travelling with CBD and importing CBD from overseas.
Footnotes
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Therapeutic Goods Administration. Medicinal cannabis importation and the traveller’s exemption. https://www.tga.gov.au/resources/explore-topic/medicinal-cannabis-hub/medicinal-cannabis-information-patients/medicinal-cannabis-importation-and-travellers-exemption ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5
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Customs (Prohibited Imports) Regulations 1956, regulation 5. https://www.legislation.gov.au/F1996B03651/latest/text ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4
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Therapeutic Goods Administration. Entering Australia with medicines and medical devices. https://www.tga.gov.au/products/travelling-medicines-and-medical-devices/entering-australia ↩
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Office of Drug Control. Travellers’ information, updated 28 April 2026. https://www.odc.gov.au/node/1215 ↩
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Office of Drug Control. Consumer warning on CBD and hemp products, 15 May 2018. https://www.odc.gov.au/node/1328 ↩
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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