The Enforcement Ledger
TGA medicinal cannabis advertising enforcement tracker
A running ledger of infringement notices, court proceedings and guidance changes affecting medicinal cannabis advertising in Australia, from 2021. Every row links to the primary TGA media release — check any figure here against the source in one click. The TGA publishes its infringement and court registers across all therapeutic goods and in no reusable format; this is the medicinal cannabis subset, structured. Free to reuse and quote with attribution.
$2.3M+Notices issued in the two years to June 2024
165+Infringement notices, same period
3Federal Court proceedings on foot
57Practitioners actioned by Ahpra to 2025 — 60 more under investigation
25%of TGA advertising enquiries in FY2022–23 were about medicinal cannabis
| Period | Action | Penalty |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-07 | TGA 2026–27 compliance priorities name medicinal cannabis one of 12 focus areas, alongside vaping goods, weight-loss medicines and melatonin, with proactive digital surveillance. source: tga.gov.au · month confirmed, day not verified | Ongoing |
| 2026-05 | TGA publishes Complying with the restrictions on advertising prescription medicines to the public, naming medicinal cannabis explicitly. source: tga.gov.au · month confirmed, day not verified | Guidance |
| 2026-02-20 | TGA publishes its response to the review of unapproved medicinal cannabis products. 790 submissions; stakeholders agreed the current access framework is 'not fit-for-purpose'. Regulatory reform options to follow. source: consultations.tga.gov.au | Consultation outcome |
| 2025-11-05 | TGA releases updated social media advertising guidance. Hashtags are named expressly as capable of forming part of an advertisement, and businesses are told they must monitor and remove non-compliant public comments on their own posts. source: tga.gov.au | Guidance |
| 2025-07-09 | Sector-wide (practitioners) — Ahpra publishes medicinal cannabis prescribing guidance, warning against misleading advertising, 'tick box' asynchronous telehealth and vertically integrated clinic models. 57 practitioners actioned, 60 under investigation. source: ahpra.gov.au | Guidance |
| 2025-06 | AG Therapeutics Pty Ltd (trading as Atlus) and its sole director, Mamamia.com.au Pty Ltd, News Life Media Pty Ltd, Straight Up PR Pty Ltd — Federal Court proceedings. The TGA alleges Atlus advertised medicinal cannabis on its website and social media using euphemisms such as 'plant medicine' — the clearest published authority that substitute terms do not avoid the prohibition. source: tga.gov.au · month confirmed, day not verified | Federal Court |
| 2025 | Dispensed Pty Ltd — 6 infringement notices plus a direction notice, including advertising carried on third-party websites and social media. source: tga.gov.au · date not yet verified | $118,800 |
| 2024-06-26 | 6 businesses and 2 individuals — 35 infringement notices in a single action across websites and social media — licensed manufacturers and importers, a health clinic and a retailer. Endorsements of cannabis for cancer, PTSD and chronic pain. source: tga.gov.au | $627,252 |
| 2024-05-23 | Better Leaf Pty Ltd and an individual — 11 notices — 9 to the company ($164,460) and 2 to an individual ($7,512) — over website and social media references to PTSD and epilepsy. source: tga.gov.au | $171,972 |
| 2024-04-18 | Montu Group Pty Ltd, Alternaleaf Pty Ltd and an individual — Federal Court proceedings; the TGA also alleges the individual is personally liable. source: tga.gov.au | Federal Court |
| 2023-12-04 | CDA Clinics QLD Pty Ltd and its former director — Federal Court civil penalty proceedings commenced. source: tga.gov.au | Federal Court |
| 2023-10 | News Life Media Pty Ltd — 3 notices over a single Body+Soul article promoting cannabis for anxiety and chronic pain — a publisher, not a supplier, fined for one piece of editorial. source: tga.gov.au · month confirmed, day not verified | $56,340 |
| 2023-09-18 | Naturally Elevated Pty Ltd and an individual — 10 notices — 8 to the company ($132,000) and 2 to an individual ($6,600) — across websites and social media. source: tga.gov.au | $138,600 |
| 2023-07-27 | Trava Health Pty Ltd and an individual — 8 notices — 5 to the clinic ($82,500) and 3 to an individual ($9,900) — for prohibited and restricted representations on its website and social media. source: tga.gov.au | $92,400 |
| 2022-10-31 | Australian Institute of Medicinal Cannabis Pty Ltd and Biologics Research Institute Australia Pty Ltd — 18 notices — 8 ($106,560) and 10 ($133,200) — including unapproved references to cancer and epilepsy. source: tga.gov.au | $239,760 |
| 2022-10-31 | A Western Australian health practitioner — 5 notices over a website and social media, including references to cancer and multiple sclerosis. Being a registered practitioner is not a shield when you advertise to the public. source: tga.gov.au | $13,320 |
| 2022-09-27 | MGC Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Cannatrek Ltd and Little Green Pharma Ltd — 73 notices — 23 ($306,360), 22 ($293,040) and 28 ($372,960) — to three licensed companies for promoting their own named products, including references to cancer and epilepsy and implied government approval. All three paid. source: tga.gov.au | $972,360 |
| 2021-12-22 | A South Australian individual — Website advertising of hemp oil products not on the ARTG, with claims covering cancer, autism, epilepsy and Alzheimer's disease. source: tga.gov.au | $7,992 |
| 2021-12-17 | Commcare (WA) Pty Ltd (trading as St Francis Pharmacy) — 3 notices for alleged unlawful advertising of medicinal cannabis — a pharmacy, not a clinic or supplier. source: tga.gov.au | $39,960 |
| 2021-09-28 | An individual (Invigorate Labs website) — 7 notices over CBD vaping liquid and other CBD products not on the ARTG. source: tga.gov.au | $18,648 |
| 2022–2024 | 165 infringement notices and 2 civil penalty proceedings over the two years to 26 June 2024 — more than $2.3 million in penalties for alleged unlawful medicinal cannabis advertising. source: tga.gov.au | $2,300,000+ |
| FY2022–23 | TGA annual advertising compliance report: 101 infringement notices worth $1,292,040 over medicinal cannabis, 351 advertisements removed from digital platforms, and 25% of all advertising enquiries the TGA received that year were about medicinal cannabis. source: tga.gov.au — annual advertising compliance report | $1,292,040 |
Use this data
This tracker is free to quote and republish with attribution and a link. The full record is available as a machine-readable dataset.
Cite as: Section 42 Compliance (2026). TGA Medicinal Cannabis Advertising Enforcement Tracker. Retrieved from https://section42.com.au/enforcement-tracker.html
Compiled from published TGA media releases and public court records. Penalty amounts are as reported at the time of the action and are not re-indexed when the penalty unit changes. Journalists: if you need a figure checked or the data in another format, get in touch.
What the pattern shows
Three things stand out from the record. First, websites and social media are where notices come from — nearly every action cites public web pages or social accounts, not print or broadcast. Second, individuals are being fined alongside companies, and in the Montu/Alternaleaf proceedings the TGA alleges the director is personally liable. Third, publishers and media are in scope — News Life Media was fined over a single article, and Mamamia faces Federal Court proceedings, which means content about your business can create liability even when you didn't write it.
From 2026 the TGA reviews its priority focus areas quarterly and monitors digital channels proactively. Waiting for a complaint to be filed is no longer a strategy.
Is your marketing in the next batch?
The breach patterns fined above — condition references, product names, synonyms like "plant medicine", testimonials, linked third-party content — are exactly what our 20-rule audit engine checks. Order a full audit ($449) or start with the free 10-point self-assessment.