Any medical doctor can prescribe medicinal cannabis in Australia with the approval from the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) and the relevant State or Territory’s Health Department.
Most medicinal cannabis products are unapproved products in Australia as they do not appear on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods (ARTG). This means that you can’t simply go to a doctor, obtain a prescription, and fill it at a pharmacy as you would with conventional registered medicines.
Instead, the TGA, the governing body that regulates access to all medicines including medicinal cannabis, have created pathways for doctors to access medicinal cannabis products for their patients, where clinically appropriate.
Australian registered medical practitioners who would like to access unapproved