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Australia’s medical cannabis boom is being driven by an explosion of ‘telehealth’ clinics that have eliminated procedural bottlenecks and driven up prescription volumes. But they are also coming under scrutiny by authorities for ‘fronting’ for recreational use.

Prohibition Partners

4 February 2025 at 07:00:00

Outside of North America, cannabis investors and business owners tend to focus on Germany, Poland and the UK as the major medical cannabis industry growth drivers.


However, one market has the potential to outgrow them all and looks to be on track to do so in the near future.


According to Prohibition Partners’ new Global Cannabis Report: 5th Edition, launching today, Australia’s medical cannabis revenues are expected to grow from around US$600m in 2024 to more than US$1.2bn by 2028.


For comparison, this is over half of the projected value of all medical cannabis sales in Europe by 2028 (US$2.2 billion by 2028), with Germany’s sales accounting for US$1.2bn alone.


Beyond an emerging market


Australia has experienced rapid growth over the last few years, seeing units sold skyrocket from 1.7m in 2022 to around 3.2m in 2023.


This growth trajectory looks set to have continued throughout 2024, with the latest available data showing that 2.9m units were sold in the first half of the year.


According to the report, this surge was driven by rapidly increasing patient numbers, prescription numbers and imports.


As seen in numerous EU markets, a key driver of this growth has also been the explosion of telehealth clinics, which have effectively reduced major bottlenecks in patient access.


Again, like its European counterparts, these telehealth businesses are now coming under increasing scrutiny amid concerns they are targeting recreational users.


After concerns were raised by professional medical bodies regarding the under-regulation of the industry, an investigation found that some practitioners were issuing 90 prescriptions to patients a day. A response unit was subsequently launched in July 2024, leading telehealth guidelines to be updated and seeing a number of clinics and dispensaries lose their licenses.

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‘TeleHealth’ Services Drive Rapidly Growing Australian Medical Cannabis Market

‘TeleHealth’ Services Drive Rapidly Growing Australian Medical Cannabis Market

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