Know Your Script
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Travel & flights · Australia-wide

Can I drive to the airport after taking my medicine?

The law is changing right now

The short answer

This is the one part of your journey where a prescription is generally not a defence. Every jurisdiction treats presence of THC differently from impairment, and the law is moving in several of them right now.

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

Driving law is out of scope for this site and is covered in depth elsewhere. In most Australian jurisdictions a prescription has not been a defence to a presence offence, Tasmania has provided a defence since 2017, Victoria amended the Road Safety Act in 2025 to give courts licence-cancellation discretion, and NSW introduced the Road Transport Legislation Amendment (Medical Cannabis and Driving Offences) Bill 2026, which had not commenced as at the verification date shown.

What happens if it goes wrong

Varies by jurisdiction. Do not rely on a summary - check the current position for your state before you drive.

What not to do

  • Do not treat a prescription as a defence without checking your own jurisdiction.
  • Do not drive if you may be impaired. That is an offence everywhere, prescription or not.

This one is covered elsewhere

Driving law is a specialist subject with its own state-by-state detail, and this site does not duplicate it. Can I Drive compares the rules in all eight jurisdictions.

Sources

Cite this page

Know Your Script, ‘The drive to the airport is the risky part of the trip’ (Australia-wide), https://www.knowyourscript.com.au/travel/driving-to-the-airport/ (UNVERIFIED DRAFT — not checked, not for citation).

This page has not been checked by anyone. Please do not cite it.

Last checked: DRAFT — never verified