As the legal cannabis industry continues to evolve in Australia, there’s one group of operators being quietly strangled by outdated regulation: cannabis accessory retailers. Despite medical cannabis being legal across the country and recreational use decriminalised in the ACT, anyone selling bongs, dab rigs, grinders, vapes, or rolling papers must still register as a tobacco retailer and comply with tobacco laws. The result? An entire subset of the cannabis industry is being forced to operate under legislation that was never designed for them.
I operate an online headshop in Australia called The Bong Baron, and every day I’m faced with the absurd consequences of this legal mismatch. Our customers are buying products used for cannabis – not tobacco – yet the law insists we act as though we’re in the cigarette business.
After the death of my father several years ago due to lung cancer because of long term tobacco use, it’s an industry I’ve never wanted to be associated with. Yet, as a result of no appropriate legislation for cannabis accessories, it is either considered drug paraphernalia and completely illegal nationwide, or I and many others are forced to pretend we are some kind of elaborate tobacco accessory store