Know Your Script
Checked by us, not by a practitioner. Every legal statement below was checked against the primary instruments listed at the foot of this page — each one retrieved from the government register that publishes it, at the version named, and read. That is what the last-checked date means here. It does not mean a solicitor, barrister or other credentialed professional has reviewed this page; none has. If you are a professional willing to change that, the terms are here.

Renting & tenancy · Northern Territory

Can I grow my own if I have a prescription in the Northern Territory?

The law is settled

The short answer

No. A prescription lets you possess a medicine that has been dispensed to you. It does not let you grow a plant, and in the Northern Territory the exemption that protects a prescribed patient is written so that it covers possession only.

General information, not advice. This page describes the law as at the last-checked date shown at the foot of it. It does not take your circumstances into account, and small differences in circumstances change outcomes. If a decision turns on this, speak to someone qualified about your own situation.

What the law actually says

Misuse of Drugs Act 1990 (NT), as in force at 1 July 2026.

The offences. Cultivating a prohibited plant is an offence under Subdivision 2 of Part II, Division 1, graded by quantity: s 6 commercial quantity, s 6A traffickable quantity, s 6B less than a traffickable quantity. Each is committed where a person intentionally cultivates, or takes part in the cultivation of, a plant that is a prohibited plant.

The exemption, and its limit. s 42 provides that, despite anything in the Act, a person who "is in possession of a dangerous drug which has been supplied to that person by or on the lawful prescription of an authorised prescriber" is not guilty of an offence against the Act. That limb turns on possessing a drug that has been supplied to you. A plant you grow yourself has not been supplied to you by a prescriber, so the exemption does not reach the cultivation offences.

The only cultivation authorisation in the Act is s 33, under which the Chief Health Officer may authorise a person to cultivate a prohibited plant "for the purpose of research, instruction, analysis or study". There is no patient pathway.

The words "patient" and "medicinal cannabis" do not appear anywhere in the Act.

What happens if it goes wrong

Maximum penalties under the Act as in force at 1 July 2026: s 6 (commercial quantity) imprisonment for 25 years; s 6A (traffickable quantity) imprisonment for 7 years; s 6B (less than traffickable) 200 penalty units or imprisonment for 2 years. Absolute liability applies to the quantity element in each, which means a mistake about how much you were growing is not an answer to that element.

What not to do

  • Do not treat a prescription as a cultivation licence. In the NT the exemption is drafted around a drug supplied to you, and a plant you grew is not that.
  • Do not assume the quantity thresholds are generous. Absolute liability applies to the quantity element, so believing you were under a threshold does not help.

Sources

Cite this page

Know Your Script, ‘A prescription does not authorise cultivation in NT’ (Northern Territory), https://www.knowyourscript.com.au/tenancy/growing-at-home-lease/nt/ (last checked 2026-08-11, publisher-checked, not reviewed by a practitioner).

Last checked against primary sources by the publisher: