This page is for people who use, or are looking into, dry herb and medical cannabis vaporisers, not nicotine vapers. We’re a (currently paused) vaporiser retailer, not lawyers or doctors, so treat everything here as a starting point and check the official sources at the bottom.
The quick version
- Medical cannabis is legal in Australia as a prescription medicine. You get it through a doctor, not a shop.
- The vaporiser devices are regulated too. Devices represented for medicinal cannabis are treated as therapeutic goods, and the rules around supplying them tightened over 2024–2025. That’s a big part of why we’ve paused selling.
- The nicotine vape reforms are a different thing. The 2024 pharmacy changes are about nicotine e-cigarettes, not dry herb or cannabis vaporisers.
Medical cannabis: a prescription, not a purchase
Cannabis for medical use has been legal at the federal level since 2016, but the way you access it matters. Most medicinal cannabis products are “unapproved” therapeutic goods, which means they aren’t on the general market. They’re reached through two pathways the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) runs:
- The Special Access Scheme (usually SAS-B): your doctor or nurse practitioner applies to the TGA to prescribe a specific unapproved product for you, with a clinical justification.
- The Authorised Prescriber scheme: a doctor who has been authorised can prescribe to a class of their patients without applying each time.
In practice your prescriber applies through the TGA’s online system, the TGA decision is generally around two working days, and depending on where you live you may also need approval from your state or territory health department before a pharmacy can dispense. Each state and territory has its own rules on top of the federal framework.
We don’t give dosing or medical guidance, and nothing here says whether cannabis is right for you. That’s a conversation for your doctor. See the TGA’s accessing medicinal cannabis for a patient page.
The vaporiser devices themselves
Here’s where it gets specific for our audience. A medicinal cannabis vaping device, a vaporiser represented for use with prescribed medicinal cannabis, is regulated by the TGA as a therapeutic good. To be imported, manufactured or supplied, such a device generally needs to be on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods (ARTG). There are approved devices that pharmacies can supply to patients, and there are pathways (again, SAS-B) for supplying an unapproved device where an approved one isn’t clinically suitable.
The TGA also draws a line between a device that’s represented for medicinal cannabis and a general-purpose “dry herb” or “aromatherapy” device. The requirements around supplying therapeutic vaping devices and accessories tightened across 2024 and 2025, and that shift is the honest reason a general dry herb vaporiser retailer like us stepped back from selling. We’d rather pause than get the regulatory side wrong.
Owning a device you already have is a different question from buying, importing or selling one, and the detail varies. If you want the current position, the TGA’s pages on medicinal cannabis vaping devices and unapproved therapeutic vaping devices and accessories are the place to start, and a pharmacist or your prescriber can point you to an approved device.
Nicotine vapes are a separate framework
It’s easy to mix these up because the word “vape” covers both, so to be clear: the big 2024 changes were about nicotine e-cigarettes, not cannabis or dry herb vaporisers.
- From 1 July 2024, under the Vaping Reforms Act, vapes could only be supplied through pharmacies. Tobacconists, vape shops and convenience stores were stopped from selling them.
- From 1 October 2024, therapeutic vapes with nicotine at 20 mg/mL or less became available from pharmacies to adults 18 and over after a pharmacist consultation, without a prescription. Higher-strength products, and anything for under-18s, still need a prescription, subject to state and territory law.
- From July 2025, updated product standards for nicotine vaping products came in.
None of that changes the cannabis prescription pathways above. If you’re reading this as a dry herb or medical cannabis user, the nicotine pharmacy model isn’t your framework. See the Department of Health’s changes to accessing vapes.
State and territory differences
Federal law is only half the picture. Possession and use of cannabis without a valid prescription remains a criminal matter, and the offences, fines and any diversion programs differ across New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, the ACT and the Northern Territory. The ACT, for example, has handled small-quantity personal possession differently from other jurisdictions. Don’t assume what’s true in one state holds in another, check your own state or territory health department and police guidance.
Where to go for the real answer
- The TGA medicinal cannabis hub for access pathways and approved products.
- The Office of Drug Control for import and controlled-substance questions.
- Your state or territory health department for local rules.
- A qualified doctor about whether medicinal cannabis is appropriate for you, and a lawyer for any legal question about your circumstances.
We’ll keep this page updated as best we can, but the official sources above always win over anything written here.