Terpenes in Australia: Legal Status, Importing and Uses
Audio unavailable right now. Please read on below.
Key takeaways
Australia legalized medicinal cannabis in 2016, and the market has grown every year since. Prescriptions keep climbing, more locally licensed manufacturers are coming online, and patients are asking for products that taste like the plant.
For lab operators there, terpenes come in two very different legal categories. Botanically derived terpenes can be imported through normal commercial channels with the right paperwork. Cannabis-derived terpenes are treated as cannabis extracts, so they need the same licensing as the cannabis itself.
Lab Effects has been making terpenes in Golden, Colorado since 2012, and our botanical line was built for exactly this situation. Below is how the rules work, how the paperwork goes, and how Australian manufacturers use terpenes in their products.
What Are Terpenes?
Terpenes are the aromatic compounds plants make. They are built from five-carbon isoprene units, and they range from small, light molecules like limonene to much larger ones. Most are clear oils that evaporate easily at room temperature. They are where nearly all of a plant's smell comes from, the citrus in a lemon, the pine in a pine needle, the gas in a cannabis cultivar.
Cannabis carries more than 200 of them. Myrcene, limonene, pinene, caryophyllene and humulene show up again and again, and they are why one cultivar smells like fuel and another smells like berries.
Why Lab Operators Add Terpenes
Terpenes start to evaporate at around 70 to 100°F (21 to 38°C). Ethanol boils at 173°F (78°C), and hexane at 156°F (69°C). Any heat-based solvent recovery has already passed the point where terpenes leave. Distillation concentrates the cannabinoids, and the aromatic fraction does not come along with them.
That is why a distillate cart or a tincture usually needs terpenes added back in. A terpene blend built to a cultivar's profile is what gives a medicinal product the smell and taste of the plant it came from.
Are Terpenes Legal in Australia?
In Australia, the legal status of a terpene depends on where it came from.
Botanically derived terpenes come from plants other than cannabis, like citrus, pine, hops and black pepper. They are legal to buy, sell and import for non-therapeutic uses, and they move through normal commercial channels. No Office of Drug Control licence is needed.
Cannabis-derived terpenes (CDTs) come from the cannabis plant. Australia treats extracts from cannabis plant material as controlled drugs, and that includes isolated terpenes even when they contain no detectable cannabinoids. Importing them takes ODC licensing and permits, and they are handled inside the medicinal cannabis framework.
For most Australian manufacturers, the simpler path is a botanically derived blend built to match a real cannabis cultivar.
[Looking for Premium Terpenes? Get High-Quality, Natural Terpenes from Lab Effects, Delivered to Australia!]Cannabis-Derived Terpenes in Australia
Medicinal cannabis in Australia sits under the Narcotic Drugs Act 1967, administered by the Office of Drug Control, and under the Therapeutic Goods Administration's quality standard for medicinal cannabis, Therapeutic Goods Order 93 (TGO 93). TGO 93 sets the testing, labeling and quality requirements medicinal cannabis products have to meet, and products made in Australia have to be manufactured under Good Manufacturing Practice.
Licensed manufacturers can work with CDTs inside that framework. They need the right ODC licences and import permits, and the paperwork that goes with each shipment.
Lab Effects manufactures under cGMP (21 CFR 111 and 21 CFR 117), is ISO 9001 certified, HACCP certified and FDA registered. That gives a licensed Australian manufacturer the quality documentation its own system asks for.
Importing Botanical Terpenes to Australia
Botanical terpenes still go through Australian biosecurity, run by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. The department checks that a shipment is what it says it is. Importers should expect to show the full composition of the product and that it is a refined material, with no animal, plant or microbial matter in it. The import conditions for a specific product are listed in BICON, the department's import conditions database, and it is worth checking there before the first order.
Lab Effects provides Certificates of Analysis and Safety Data Sheets for every product, and the team helps put together the documentation a shipment needs.
[Need Help with Terpene Imports? Trust Lab Effects to Handle Your Documentation and Compliance.]How Botanically Derived Strains Are Made
Our Botanically Derived Strains start with GC/MS testing on real cannabis cultivars. The results show which terpenes are in the flower and in what proportions. We then rebuild that profile using the same terpene molecules from other plants. Once a terpene is isolated, the molecule is the same whether it came from cannabis or from citrus peel, as long as it is natural and not synthetic.
That gives an Australian manufacturer a cultivar's nose, Gelato, Durban Poison, Super Silver Haze, without any cannabis-derived material in the bottle. Lab Effects carries more than 115 strain profiles, and every terpene we make is 100% natural. We do not use synthetics or odorizers.
How To Use Terpenes
In medicinal cannabis, terpenes are mostly used to give a product the flavor and aroma of a specific cultivar. They also go into food, cosmetics and other products well outside cannabis.
Our suggested starting points:
- Vapes: 7%
- Tinctures: 1.5%
- Gummies: 1%
- Topicals: 0.5%
Start there and adjust, since small changes in percentage can noticeably change aroma and taste.
Terpenes are potent, non-polar, oil-based compounds that can be volatile, flammable and even corrosive in pure form. They should only be handled by trained manufacturers. If you are new to working with terpenes, take care.
Carriers and Diluents Without PG or VG
What goes into a cart besides the active and the terpenes matters too. The 2019 EVALI outbreak in the US was traced to vitamin E acetate used as a cutting agent in illicit THC carts, and since then labs everywhere have paid closer attention to carriers.
Lab Effects makes two that are built from naturally occurring ingredients. Neither one contains PG, VG, PEG, MCT, vitamin E acetate, squalene or squalane:
- The BASE is a scentless, flavorless carrier oil made from non-aromatic terpenes, lipids and natural esters. Blend in your active at the potency you want and it is ready to vape.
- The CUT is a scentless, flavorless diluent made from naturally occurring terpenes. It thins thick distillates and extracts and stops crystallization without changing the flavor.
Where To Buy Terpenes in Australia
Australian manufacturers have limited local options for cultivar-matched terpenes, and that is where Lab Effects comes in. We have been making terpenes since 2012, our whole catalog is 100% natural, and our botanical line gives a manufacturer a real cultivar profile with a straightforward import path.
If you are importing terpenes into Australia for the first time, our team will help with the documentation and walk you through the process.
[New to Ordering Terpenes from Overseas? Lab Effects Makes Sourcing Terpenes Easy for Australia!]
