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Cannabis is a plant used in Australia for recreational, medicinal and industrial purposes. Australia has one of the highest cannabis prevalence rates in the world. In 2022–23, 41% of Australians over the age of fourteen years had used cannabis in their lifetime and 11.5% had used cannabis in the last 12 months.
.svg) Location of Australia (dark green) | |
| Medicinal | Legal |
|---|---|
| Recreational | Illegal federally Decriminalised in the Australian Capital Territory |
| Hemp | Legal |
On 24 February 2016, Australia legalised growing of cannabis for medicinal and scientific purposes at the federal level. On 12 November 2017, Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) made low-THC hemp food legal for human consumption in Australia. On 25 September 2019, the Australian Capital Territory passed a bill allowing for possession and growth of small amounts of cannabis for personal use as of 31 January 2020, although the laws conflict with federal laws that prohibit recreational use of cannabis and the supply of cannabis and cannabis seeds are not allowed under the changes.
Attitudes towards legalising recreational cannabis in Australia have shifted over the last decade. According to polling by the National Drug Strategy Household Survey (NDSHS) in 2019, more Australians now support legalisation of cannabis than remain opposed. In 2019, the survey reported that 41% of Australians supported the legalisation of cannabis, 37% remained opposed, and 22% were undecided. In the 2022–2023 NDSHS support for the legalisation of cannabis rose to 45%. There have also been some associated changes in public perceptions about other cannabis-related policies. For example, the majority of Australians aged 14 years and over do not support the possession of cannabis being a criminal offence (74% in 2016 compared with 66% in 2010). In 2019 this rose to 78%, before rising again to 80% in 2022–2023.
Cannabis usage is higher among Indigenous Australians (especially Indigenous men) than non-Indigenous Australians, with between 20% and 70% of Indigenous people having used the drug in the past 12 months varying by region. Two common names for cannabis in Aboriginal English and in Indigenous Australian languages are gunja and yarndi.