The Continuing Importance Of The German Medical Cannabis Market

Even with the impact of Covid, the German cannabis market has continued to power forward. Several new distribution deals have been finalized in the last six months, and a German distributor for the domestically, bid-grown cannabis has been chosen.

Furthermore, the reference price for wholesale medical cannabis flower has also been established. 

And despite the fact that they were far from copacetic about the same, German insurers are now directly on the hook to reimburse a drug they are also now setting a commercial “end-user” price for.

This means that the country, of roughly 83 million people has a working, if still evolving market for a drug, even in its raw form, a set of standards, and at least the outline of a supply chain that is totally integrated into the mainstream medical system here.

There is no other country in the world, besides Israel, that has accomplished the same.

Medical Cannabis Is Not The Only Discussion In The Room

Furthermore, despite all the advances on other parts of this discussion (namely both “hemp” and the “CBD” markets), not to mention the now ongoing drumbeat for further reform and of the recreational kind all over the continent, there is no regulated market that even comes close to what has now been firmly established auf Deutschland.

Namely, although it can still be a fight if not a major administrative, paper-strewn pain to become a medical cannabis patient, that possibility is becoming more and more mainstream.

And further, certainly, in Germany it is absolutely possible to buy hemp-based products if you want to. You just pay out the nose for high-quality product.

What Does This Mean For Other European Countries?

There is little chance that the European Union will be able to deflect if not punt on the topic of medical cannabis this December after the WHO makes what is expected to be at least a clarifying decision about what cannabis actually is. That this may still leave CBD in the “narcotic basket” is one issue. Hopefully, hemp will drop out of the discussion – leaving still the thorny issues surrounding “novel food” which will also not just fade away.

However, by redefining the plant as a drug, even if only looking at it through the THC lens, the WHO is lining up to at least support the infrastructure created nationally by a few countries (Germany and Israel being two of the leading cannabis medical infrastructures in the world). And everyone else, will in the end, find themselves playing catch-up.

For the best analysis and understanding of the changing market in Germany if not across Europe, be sure to attend the next International Cannabis Business Conference in Europe in 2021