Europe · all countries · model E — Cannabinoid medicines only

Medical cannabis in Austria

Isolated THC and approved finished medicines only

Cannabis flower may not be prescribed in Austria. What is possible is dronabinol as a magistral (pharmacy-compounded) preparation and three approved finished medicines.

The hardest fact about Austria. A German flower prescription is not valid in Austria, and the flower may not be brought in either. Anyone promising you otherwise is selling you a risk.

Every answer below was read in the law, the register or the official statistic itself. This country is also covered in full in the German edition of the site.

The questions, answered for Austria

How access works here

The one-line answer: can a new patient start today, and through what.

E — cannabinoid medicines only. Austrian law forbids prescribing cannabis flower or crude preparations; doctors may prescribe authorised cannabis-extract medicines (Sativex) and pharmacy-compounded dronabinol (THC ≥95 % purity) or nabilone, on a narcotic prescription with a Suchtgift sticker.

Suchtgiftverordnung (SV, Narcotics Ordinance) § 14 prohibits prescribing preparations from heroin, cannabis, coca leaf and ecgonine, with two exceptions: 'Zubereitungen aus Cannabisextrakten, die als Arzneispezialitäten zugelassen sind' (authorised cannabis-extract medicinal specialties, i.e. Sativex) and isolated delta-9-THC of standardised purity above 95 % for compounded (magistral) medicines (dronabinol). § 18 SV: narcotics of Anhang I, II and IV may be prescribed only on the insurance prescription form (for panel doctors) or a private prescription, in every case marked with a 'Suchtgiftvignette' on the front; in the e-Rezept (§ 31a ASVG) the marking is made 'über ein in e-Rezept bereitgestelltes Kennzeichnungsfeld'. Any physician may prescribe; there is no cannabis-flower programme, no product register and no licence pathway for patients.

Source: RIS — Suchtgiftverordnung § 14 (prohibited prescriptions; cannabis exceptions), BGBl. II Nr. 374/1997 as amended · read 27 September 2026

What may be prescribed

What the law allows a doctor to write on a prescription here.

Isolated delta-9-THC (dronabinol) with a purity above 95 % as a magistral preparation, plus Sativex, Canemes and Epidyolex. Flower and cannabis preparations are excluded.

§ 14 Z 3 Suchtgiftverordnung prohibits prescribing “preparations made from … cannabis” and allows exactly two exceptions: cannabis extract preparations authorised as a medicinal product, and the active substance delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol isolated from cannabis extracts with a standardised purity of more than 95 % for magistral preparations.

Source: § 14 Suchtgiftverordnung (RIS) · read 4 September 2026

Who may prescribe

Whether you need a specialist, and whether anyone has to approve it first.

Any doctor, on a Suchtgiftrezept (narcotics prescription) with its Suchtgiftvignette sticker.

No register of doctors who prescribe cannabinoids exists in Austria — and the medical chamber points out explicitly that the entries on special services are self-declared and are not verified.

Type of prescription

The form itself: which prescription, how long it is valid, how much it covers.

Suchtgiftrezept with vignette.

Governed by §§ 17 ff. Suchtgiftverordnung.

Source: Suchtgiftverordnung (RIS, geltende Fassung) · read 4 September 2026

Telemedicine

Whether a prescription can lawfully begin in a video call.

There is no workable remote-prescribing practice for a Suchtgiftrezept. Offers promising an Austrian cannabis prescription online should be treated with caution.

Dispensing

Which pharmacy can actually hand it over.

Through public pharmacies. Dronabinol is made up there as a magistral preparation — but by no means every pharmacy does it.

At the end of 2025 Austria had 1,445 public pharmacies and 28 branch pharmacies. Which of them actually compound dronabinol is recorded in no official source.

Source: Österreichische Apothekerkammer, Zahlen und Fakten · read 4 September 2026

Reimbursement

Whether anyone other than you pays for it.

Possible, but subject to prior authorisation: in the Erstattungskodex (reimbursement code), dronabinol is tied to approval by the insurer's medical officer.

Sativex and Epidyolex sit in the yellow area of the Erstattungskodex (box Y, RE1) and therefore also require authorisation, each with its own rule text. Canemes is not listed in the Erstattungskodex and is reimbursed only in justified individual cases. We re-check each box status separately before every publication; they change monthly.

Source: ÖGK Erstattungskodex · read 4 September 2026

What it costs

What you pay, as far as anyone publishes it.

Not published

Without authorisation, patients pay themselves. There are no public price lists for magistral dronabinol.

The amounts circulating in the media are individual reports with no official basis. We do not publish them as a price, only as a dated third-party statement.

Driving

The question with the worst consequences and the least reliable information online.

Austria has no THC limit. What counts is being impaired — established by a medical examination.

§ 5 Abs. 1 StVO prohibits driving while impaired; the penalty under § 99 Abs. 1b StVO is between 800 and 3,700 euros. Where the therapy is followed properly and a supporting specialist statement exists, § 14 Abs. 4 FSG-GV protects the driving licence — but not against being reported.

Source: StVO (RIS, geltende Fassung) · read 4 September 2026

Travel

Taking it across a border, which is where most published advice is simply wrong.

A certificate under Article 75 SDÜ, authenticated by the public health officer of the district administrative authority, valid for up to 30 days' supply.

Source: Sozialministerium: Suchtmittelhaltige Arzneimittel im Reiseverkehr · read 4 September 2026

As a visitor or new resident

Four things nobody publishes together: getting a prescription as a non-resident, using a prescription from another EU country, bringing your own medicine in, and whether a foreign video consultation counts.

Any doctor in Austria may write a visitor a private prescription for dronabinol or Sativex, but flower cannot be prescribed to anyone. Foreign prescriptions for these narcotic medicines are not accepted because they lack the Austrian Suchtgift sticker. Bringing your own medicine: up to 5 days' stay needs nothing, 5–30 days needs your home prescription plus the Schengen Article 75 form (or the non-Schengen form), never more than 30 days' supply — and this applies to cannabis medicines only insofar as they are lawful in Austria.

1. Non-residents: Rezeptpflichtgesetz § 3 sets prescription content only; § 18 SV allows 'Privatrezept' with Suchtgiftvignette for doctors outside the insurance system, so a non-insured foreigner can receive a private dronabinol/Sativex prescription; no residency or nationality condition exists ('not published' beyond the statute). 2. Prescriptions from another EEA state: Rezeptpflichtgesetz § 4 Abs. 5: 'Die Abs. 1 bis 4 gelten sinngemäß auch für Rezepte, die in anderen Vertragsparteien des Abkommens über den europäischen Wirtschaftsraum zur grenzüberschreitenden Verwendung ausgestellt wurden und in Österreich zur Abgabe vorgelegt werden' — but § 18 SV requires every narcotic prescription to bear the Austrian Suchtgiftvignette (or the e-Rezept marking), which a foreign doctor cannot obtain, so foreign narcotic prescriptions (including dronabinol/Sativex) are not dispensable; Switzerland is not covered by § 4 Abs. 5 at all. 3. Bringing medicine in — BMSGPK 'Suchtmittelhaltige Arzneimittel im Reiseverkehr': for stays up to 5 days such medicines 'ohne weitere Bestätigung mitgeführt werden' können; for 5–30 days you need the 'ärztliche Verschreibung Ihrer Heimatärztin/Ihres Heimatarztes' and, recommended, the form 'gemäß Anhang IX der Suchtgiftverordnung' (Schengen Art. 75) or 'gemäß Anhang X der Suchtgiftverordnung' (non-Schengen); 'Die mitgebrachte Menge darf den Bedarf für 30 Tage nicht überschreiten'; Austrians travelling out get the Art. 75 form from the prescriber or Bezirksverwaltungsbehörde, certified by the Amtsarzt. The page does not mention cannabis flower; since § 14 SV bars cannabis preparations other than authorised extracts and pure THC, bringing flower into Austria is not covered by this personal-use allowance ('not published' as an explicit statement). 4. Foreign telemedicine prescriptions: not dispensable (see 2).

Source: BMSGPK — Suchtmittelhaltige Arzneimittel im Reiseverkehr (narcotic medicines when travelling; entry into Austria) · read 27 September 2026

What is changing

What is pending in parliament or at the regulator, with dates — or the statement that nothing is.

Nothing pending was found: the ministry's legal pages and the current RIS texts of the Suchtgiftverordnung show no announced change to the cannabis rules.

The BMSGPK (Bundesministerium für Soziales, Gesundheit, Pflege und Konsumentenschutz, Federal Ministry of Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection) 'Rechtliche Informationen' page lists the Suchtmittelgesetz (SMG), Suchtgiftverordnung, Psychotropenverordnung and Grenzmengenverordnungen with no note of pending amendments; RIS shows § 14 SV last amended 26 Sept 2017 and §§ 3, 3a, 4 Rezeptpflichtgesetz in the version in force since 1 Jan 2024 (e-Rezept integration). No government bill on medical cannabis flower was found on the pages opened (no web search was available, so a Ministerialentwurf could have been missed).

Source: BMSGPK — Suchtmittel: Rechtliche Informationen und Rechtstexte (legal information and texts) · read 27 September 2026

Number of patients

How many people this actually concerns — where anyone counts.

Not published

The last official figures are for the first half of 2018: 7,325 patients and 22,337 prescriptions. There are no newer official figures.

Source: Bericht III-233, XXVI. GP (Parlament) · read 4 September 2026

What we can publish for Austria, and what we cannot

Four directories, four honest answers. Where an official register exists we republish it and link every entry back to the source. Where none exists, that is what the page says — a list built out of self-declarations would be worse than no list, and saying so is more useful to you than pretending.

Doctors

No list — by design

No register records who prescribes, and the Austrian medical chamber states that the entries on special services in its own directory are not verified. Any doctor may prescribe dronabinol on a narcotics prescription, so the practical route runs through your own GP.

Pharmacies

No list — by design

No register records which Austrian pharmacies compound dronabinol, and we will not build a list by telephoning them — an unverifiable list is worse than none. The BASG distance-selling register exists but says nothing about cannabis.

Register: BASG Fernabsatz-Register · read 4 September 2026

Products and preparations

Directory published

A short list, because the law makes it short: cannabis preparations may not be prescribed at all, so what exists is isolated dronabinol as a magistral preparation plus the registered extract medicines.

Open the products and preparations directory

Telemedicine platforms

No list — by design

There is no workable remote-prescribing practice for an Austrian narcotics prescription. Offers promising an Austrian cannabis prescription online should be treated with caution.

Where this country's law lives

Everything above comes from these texts rather than from another portal's summary. They are listed so you can check us.

Crossing a border with this

Two European rules decide most of what a traveller asks. Directive 2011/24/EU obliges pharmacies to honour prescriptions from another Member State — but only for medicines authorised in the dispensing country, and its Article 11(6) says the rule “shall not apply to medicinal products subject to special medical prescription”, which is where narcotic prescriptions sit. A magistral cannabis preparation is neither authorised nor outside that exclusion, so a cannabis prescription from another country is, as a rule, not dispensable anywhere in Europe. For carrying your own medicine, Article 75 of the Schengen Convention lets a resident of a Schengen state travel with a certified supply for up to 30 days; outside Schengen, national import rules apply. The country-specific answer is above under “As a visitor or new resident”.

Directive 2011/24/EU, Article 11(1) and 11(6) — read on EUR-Lex on 27 September 2026: CELEX 32011L0024.

The same questions, elsewhere

The answers change at every border, and a prescription does not travel with you. Compare before you assume.