All Australian states and territories, and New Zealand allow for the legal use of medicinal cannabis. However, personal use is still illegal across all states and in New Zealand.
The sole exception is Canberra, or the Australian Capital Territory where personal use and growing of cannabis was decriminalised in 2020, for personal possession, use and home cultivation. You need to be 18+ years of age and may possess up to 50 grams of dried or 150 grams of fresh cannabis, 2 plants per person or a maximum of 4 plants per household, and use is limited to within your home.
It is still illegal in the ACT to:
- smoke cannabis in a public place
- expose a child to cannabis smoke
- store it where a child may have access
- sell or share cannabis
- grow any plants hydroponically
- grow plants where they might be accessed by the public, or
- drive with any cannabis in your system
In the state of Victoria, possession – without a valid doctor's prescription – is considered an offence. Any amount over 250 grams or 10 plants is considered a trafficable offence. Penalties can be severe: 100+ plants or 25+ kilograms can attract a maximum 25 years imprisonment, 1000+ plants or 250+ kilograms can incur a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
Fortunately, a Victoria Police initiative, the Cannabis Cautioning Program, means police will issue a cautioning notice to persons over 17 years of age, for possession of small quantities less than 50 grams.
New South Wales Police also operate a similar Cannabis Cautioning Scheme for quantities less than 15 grams. Penalties are less severe in this state as well. A trafficable quantity is defined as 300+ grams and can attract a prison sentence of up to 2 years and/or a fine of $11,000. An Indictable quantity is defined as 1+ kilograms or 50 plants and can attract a prison sentence up to 15 years and/or a fine of $220,000.
"It's a good thing that cannabis for medicinal use is available to patients on doctor's prescription," said Tom Varga, CEO of Australia's largest B2B grower and supplier of medicinal cannabis.
"Patients that need help, deserve to get that help," he said. "Biortica's position has always been: legal, regulated and safe is far better than illegal, unregulated and potentially unsafe."
"We can always do better,'' said Tom, "uniform national legislation and regulation for both medicinal and personal use, together with control of currently unregulated imports would be the gold standard."
"Did I mention a National Cannabis Regulatory Steering Committee?" he quipped.
For more information:
Biortica Agrimed
www.biortica.com