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Is it legal to buy CBD online in Australia?

Not without a prescription. CBD is a prescription medicine, overseas orders are prohibited imports, and unregulated products are often mislabelled.

Facts checked 13 November 20262 min readHow we research

Not without a prescription. CBD is a prescription medicine in Australia, so a website that sells it to anyone who clicks “buy” is not supplying it lawfully, and ordering it from overseas is a prohibited import.12

What about Australian websites?

Any product with more than 75 mg of CBD per kilogram is at least a Schedule 4 (Prescription Only) medicine. Supplying it without a prescription is unlawful under state medicines and poisons law.1

In New South Wales, cannabis products that fall outside the medicine schedules are prohibited drugs under the state’s drug trafficking law.3

A lawful product sold online without a prescription can only be hemp seed oil, which contains a trace of CBD at most.1 See is CBD the same as hemp oil?

What about overseas websites?

Importing cannabinoids is prohibited unless the importer holds a licence and a permit.2 The Therapeutic Goods Administration says cannabis products “are excluded from personal importation”, the scheme people use to bring in other medicines.4

Two official warnings:

  • The Office of Drug Control said in 2018 that overseas companies were “illegally exporting” CBD and hemp products to Australians, that imports “will be seized at the border”, and that importers “are also breaking State/Territory laws on supply and use of prescription medicines”.5
  • The Australian Border Force said in 2021 that items “will be seized at the border and they may face prosecution”, after “a marked increase” in interceptions of “hemp or CBD gummies, oils and skin care products”.6

Customs and criminal penalties exist for importing prohibited goods.2 We could not confirm how often small personal orders are prosecuted and how often they are simply seized.

Is the product likely to be what it says?

Often not. In a United States study of 84 CBD products bought online, only about 31 per cent were accurately labelled.7 A 2024 study of 202 products found 74 per cent were off by at least 10 per cent.8

By contrast, when the Therapeutic Goods Administration tested prescription cannabis products supplied in Australia, most were close to their labels.9

Mislabelling matters most for people who drive or are drug tested, because an unlabelled dose of THC can produce a positive test. See will CBD show up on a drug test?

What does the law require?

Lawful supply requires a prescription from an Australian doctor or nurse practitioner, dispensed by a pharmacy. See do you need a prescription for CBD oil?

Read the full guide: buying CBD online in Australia and importing CBD from overseas.

Footnotes

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

  2. Customs (Prohibited Imports) Regulations 1956, regulation 5. https://www.legislation.gov.au/F1996B03651/latest/text ↩ ↩2 ↩3

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

  4. 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 ↩

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

  6. Australian Border Force media release, 5 July 2021, as republished by Mirage News. https://www.miragenews.com/increase-in-seizures-prompts-warning-to-590129/ ↩

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

  8. Study of 202 CBD products purchased online, 2024. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10982813/ ↩

  9. Therapeutic Goods Administration. Testing of medicinal cannabis products being supplied through the SAS in Australia. https://www.tga.gov.au/resources/publication/tga-laboratory-testing-reports/testing-medicinal-cannabis-products-being-supplied-sas-australia ↩

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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