Medicinal cannabis and driving: new resources for clinicians
15 January 2026
Whether you are an active prescriber of medicinal cannabis or managing patients taking medicinal cannabis that has been prescribed elsewhere, it is important to consider the risks associated with driving.
Increasingly, clinicians are concerned about their patients seeking medicinal cannabis treatment outside their usual healthcare arrangements. These concerns include whether the treatment is appropriate and how it might affect other conditions and treatments that the medicinal cannabis prescriber may not be aware of. Impairments likely to affect driving or other safety-critical tasks are a further concern.
New resources developed by Transport Victoria support early and ongoing consideration of impairment risk, helping you to include attention to driving as you provide safe and informed care by:
- Assessing patients’ driving needs and ensuring they are compatible with the planned or prescribed treatment
- Educating patients about the impairment risks and their obligations under Victorian drug-driving laws
- Assessing and managing individual impairment risks, both at initial prescribing and throughout the course of treatment.
The resources are available on the Transport Victoria website and include:
- Decision Support Resource that guides clinicians through these three steps, with detailed information to support assessment and management of impairment risk and links to additional information and references
- Driving Needs Checklist that guides the assessment of a patient’s driving requirements and can provide evidence that the conversation about driving has occurred.
- Patient Factsheet that facilitates conversations about driving risks and legal obligations.
The Transport Victoria resources support understanding of the impairment risks and other clinical risks. They help facilitate positive conversations with patients about their medicinal cannabis treatment and their driving needs. While they refer to the legal framework in Victoria, the clinical information and resources may be useful for clinicians in other states as well.
More information