Travelling with Medical Cannabis Domestically and Internationally - A Patients Guide

Travelling inside New Zealand and to Australia with prescribed cannabis is as easy as taking your prescription medicine. Several Pacific islands are more welcoming than people assume. And beyond that, the honest answer is that there is nowhere else you can realistically take it, for a reason most people have not thought through.

This is a long one because the detail is the whole point. Jump to where you are going:

• New Zealand, domestic travel. Nothing needed beyond the container.
• Australia. Traveller's exemption, straightforward with paperwork.
• Cook Islands. Permitted for prescribed visitors since July 2024.
• Tonga. Permitted under a foreign prescription, notify in advance.
• Fiji. Apply for an Exemption Letter two weeks before you fly.
• Samoa. No, under any circumstances.
• Chile. Legal there, closed to visitors.
• Europe, Asia, the US and the Middle East. Why transit stops you before the destination does.
• Anywhere else. How to find out for yourself.

The thing most people get wrong

For most situations, the container is the documentation.

Medicine dispensed by a pharmacy comes with a label carrying your name, the product, the dose and the prescriber. That label, attached to the original container, is the evidence that you are in lawful possession. Keep your medicine in it. Do not decant it into something more discreet, do not peel the label off, and do not split a prescription into a smaller pot for a trip. 

Within New Zealand.

Carry your medicine in its original pharmacy-labelled container with your name on it. That is the whole procedure. It applies to domestic flights, ferries, buses, trains and everything else.

Airport security is looking for threats, not prescriptions. A labelled pharmacy container is an ordinary thing for a traveller to be carrying.

If you are driving, the thing to think about is not paperwork but roadside saliva testing, which applies wherever you are going. We covered that here, including the 12-hour driving prohibition and the medical defence.

Australia

The one overseas destination most New Zealand patients can plan around with confidence. Australia operates a traveller's exemption allowing a limited personal supply of prescribed medicine.

Steps to take before departure:

1. Keep your medicine in the original pharmacy-labelled container, with the name matching your passport.
2. Check your quantity reads clearly as personal supply and matches your prescription.
3. Check the separate rules on vaping devices and cartridges, which have their own limits independent of the medicine.
4. For longer stays, check the relevant state or territory health department, since requirements differ between them.
5. Read the current position on the Australian Office of Drug Control website before you fly. Their enquiries address is odc@health.gov.au.

On arrival: declare it, present your prescription and answer questions straight.

Cook Islands: permitted since July 2024

The Narcotics and Misuse of Drugs Amendment Act 2023, with its accompanying Narcotics Amendment Regulations 2024 and Ministry of Health (Pharmacy and Therapeutics) Amendment Regulations 2024, came into effect on 2 July 2024. It allows anyone, resident or visitor, who has been prescribed medicinal cannabis by an overseas medical practitioner to import and possess it, subject to conditions.

The conditions: the prescribed cannabis is to be used only by the named person it was prescribed to, and the amount imported or possessed must be no more than is reasonably necessary for personal use in accordance with the prescription, and no more than one month's worth.

Steps to take before departure:

1. Confirm the medicine is prescribed to you personally. The named-person rule is explicit and non-negotiable.
2. Work out one month's supply at your prescribed dose and carry no more than that.
3. Keep it in the original pharmacy-labelled container.
4. Carry a copy of your prescription and a prescriber's letter.
5. Read the current requirements published by Te Marae Ora, the Cook Islands Ministry of Health, on its website and Facebook page, and by Tourism Cook Islands on theirs. Both publish the full legal detail. Te Marae Ora can be reached at administration@health.gov.ck.
6. Declare it on arrival.

Worth knowing the backstory. A 2022 referendum held alongside the general election saw 62 percent of Cook Islanders vote to review their cannabis laws for research and medicinal use. A Cannabis Referendum Committee was formed in November 2022, chaired by Cabinet Minister Tingika Elikana, the amendment passed in December 2023, and the World Health Organisation's legal team helped work it through. Two years from referendum to law.

Tonga: permitted with paperwork

Tonga has no domestic medical cannabis programme, but section 4(2) of the Illicit Drugs Control Act 2003 makes an explicit exception for anyone lawfully in possession of a controlled drug under a valid prescription issued by a qualified medical practitioner outside the Kingdom. So a New Zealand prescription works. Possession without one remains a criminal offence.

Steps to take before departure:

1. Get a copy of your valid prescription from your licensed New Zealand doctor.
2. Get a letter from your doctor that includes: your full name and passport number, the medical condition being treated, details of the medication (form, dosage, daily use), your intended travel dates and the quantity needed, and your doctor's contact information.
3. Send that documentation to Tongan Customs, the Ministry of Revenue and Customs, at info@customs.gov.to or +676 23 651, Fe'ao Moe Ngalu Building.
4. Send it to the Tonga Ministry of Health as well, at travel@health.gov.to or +676 23200, Vaiola Hospital, Taufa-ahau Road, Tofoa.
5. Keep the cannabis in its original packaging with all supporting documentation.
6. Bring only the quantity necessary for your travel period, to a maximum of 30 days, unless there is documented medical justification.

On entry: verbally declare your medical cannabis to customs officers, present your prescription and medical letter, and answer any questions honestly and transparently about your medical needs.

On exit: declare it again. Tonga expects declaration both entering and leaving.

Fiji: get an Exemption Letter first

Cannabis is illegal in Fiji for both medical and recreational use under the Illicit Drugs Control Act 2004 and the Dangerous Drugs Act Cap 114, and there is no domestic medical framework. Fiji generally does not recognise foreign prescriptions.

But the Act contains a specific medical exemption for travellers: a person undergoing treatment for a medical condition who is entering, leaving or transiting through Fiji may possess quantities of an otherwise illicit drug that have been lawfully prescribed for treating that condition, for up to one month. Transit being expressly covered is unusual and useful.

In practice the exemption is administered by the Fiji Medicines Regulatory Authority, which will issue you an Exemption Letter before you travel. We asked them directly, and this is the process they gave us.

Steps to take before departure:

1. Get a letter from your prescribing doctor.
2. Get a copy of your prescription, or take a clear photo of the pharmacy-labelled container showing your name and dosing details.
3. Note your travel dates, both into and out of Fiji.
4. Email all of it to the Fiji Medicines Regulatory Authority at FijiMRA@health.gov.fj. Send it at least two weeks before you travel.
5. Wait for your Exemption Letter and carry it with you alongside the prescription and doctor's letter.
6. Keep the cannabis in its original pharmacy-labelled packaging.
7. Bring only what your travel period needs, to a maximum of 30 days.

On entry: declare it to customs officers and present your Exemption Letter, prescription and doctor's letter. Answer questions honestly about your medical needs.a

Travellers found with cannabis outside the exemption may face arrest, prosecution and severe penalties. Get the letter. Two weeks of admin is a small price.

Samoa: absolutely not

Samoa is the exception and it is a hard one. Cannabis is illegal in all forms for both medical and recreational use under the Narcotics Act 1967, as amended in 2006 and 2009, which classifies cannabis as a Class B narcotic. Samoa does not recognise foreign medical cannabis prescriptions, and there are no exemptions for registered patients from other countries.

Possession carries up to 14 years' imprisonment regardless of quantity, in any format. Leave it at home and talk to your prescriber about managing the gap.

Chile: legal locally, closed to visitors

Chile passed medical cannabis legislation in 2015, one of the first Latin American countries to do so. Recreational use remains banned, though private consumption has been decriminalised since 2005.

Unfortunately, the scheme is only built for Chilean residents and there is no traveller exemption. Importing cannabis, including CBD, is illegal even with a valid overseas prescription, and penalties include significant fines and imprisonment.

The wider lesson, which applies well beyond Chile: legal at the destination does not mean accessible to you. Always check whether the scheme extends to visitors, not just whether it exists.

The wall: you cannot get past Australia and the Pacific

Worth understanding before you plan anything ambitious.

Cannabis is illegal under United States federal law, which means you cannot carry it through an American airport even in transit, even without leaving the terminal. Most of Asia carries severe penalties for cannabis possession and does not recognise foreign prescriptions. The Middle East is worse.

Now look at a map. Every route from New Zealand to Europe goes through Asia, the United States or the Middle East. There is no path that avoids all three. Which means that in practice, no matter what your destination country's law says, you cannot take your medicine further than Australia and the nearer Pacific. The transit leg stops you before the destination ever becomes relevant.

If you are going to Europe, you are going without it.

Where to check any other country

Zennjet is the resource we point people to. It is a membership service built for travellers carrying prescribed controlled medicines, with country-by-country travel risk reports, a centralised database of requirements, and 24/7 legal and medical support for members who run into trouble. Some of the country detail in this article comes from their reports.

It was co-founded by Brittney Griner, who spent nearly ten months in Russian custody over 0.7 grams of prescribed cannabis oil, which tells you most of what you need to know about how seriously to take this.

The other approach, which is how we got the Fiji process above, is simply to email the destination's health ministry or medicines authority and ask. You will often get a straight answer from someone whose job it is to know.

Coming home

1. Check the current Ministry of Health quantity limits before you travel. They differ between CBD products and other medicinal cannabis. Medicines Control can be reached at medicinescontrol@health.govt.nz.
2. Declare it on your passenger arrival card.
   
3. Keep everything in the original labelled containers.

One specific trap: medicinal cannabis products supplied in the United States generally cannot be carried into or out of New Zealand, because under US federal law they are not considered lawfully supplied. Being prescribed something overseas does not make it legal to bring back.

If you are asked about it

Be straightforward. You are a patient carrying a prescribed medicine, it is in its original labelled container, and here is your prescription. Most border and security staff deal with prescription medicines constantly and have no interest in making it complicated.

What causes problems is inconsistency: a label that does not match your passport, a quantity that does not match your prescription, medicine loose in a bag, or an explanation that changes.

The short version

• New Zealand: original labelled container. Nothing else needed.
• Australia: container, prescription copy, prescriber's letter, declare on arrival. Check vape device rules separately.
• Cook Islands: permitted for prescribed visitors since July 2024. One month maximum, named person only.
• Tonga: permitted under a foreign prescription. Detailed doctor's letter, notify customs in advance, declare both ways, 30 days.
• Fiji: apply to FijiMRA@health.gov.fj two weeks out for an Exemption Letter. One month, declare both ways.
• Samoa: no. Up to 14 years for possession, any quantity, any format.
• Chile: legal locally, closed to visitors. Do not bring it.
• Anywhere requiring transit through Asia, the US or the Middle East: leave it at home. There is no legal route.
• Always: keep the label on the container.

If you are unsure about a specific trip, ask your prescriber before you book anything rather than after.

General information only, not legal advice. Cannabis and travel rules change frequently and vary by country, state and airline. Legal references and contact details here were accurate when published; confirm current requirements with the relevant government agency or embassy before you travel.