The German Medical Cannabis Industry Is The Main European Market Driver

Germany first legalized medical cannabis in 2017, and its distribution model involves permitting legal sales at registered pharmacies. Germany’s medical cannabis industry has become the largest legal market in Europe, boosting the nation’s pharmacy sector in the process. Since the launch of initial sales, safe access to medical cannabis via Germany’s pharmacies has increased dramatically, as demonstrated by statistics that were included in a recent newsletter by the German Cannabis Business Association (BvCW).

“Patients can order cannabis online with a private prescription and have it delivered to their home. Nationwide, around 2,500 of the 17,000 pharmacies now offer medical cannabis,” BvCW stated (translated from German to English). “The industry’s revenue is now estimated at around half a billion euros.”

A major contributing factor to Germany’s recent medical cannabis industry growth was the enactment of the CanG law in April 2024, which removed cannabis from the nation’s Narcotics List. The rise of telemedicine has also contributed to the medical cannabis industry’s growth in Germany. A recent newsletter by leading international cannabis economist Beau Whitney, founder of Whitney Economics, provides some reliable market data regarding the current estimated number of medical cannabis patients in Germany.

“There has been a consistent number of between 200k – 300k medical patients.” Beau Whitney writes. “As a result of this new innovation, there is now an additional 500k – 600k self-paying consumers participating in the legal market.”

“When combined with 100k cultivation association members, there is approximately 800k legal consumers in the German market right now. For perspective, 800k consumers represents between 10% and 20% of the total market, while the supply and capacity at the end of 2024 represented nearly 15% of all of the supply that the market needs.” Whitney stated.

At the recent International Cannabis Business Conference in Berlin, a team of experts from Germany’s emerging medical cannabis industry examined how the nation’s medical market is the main overall market driver in Europe. The panel was moderated by Canadian medical cannabis pioneer Alex Revich and included:

• Torsten Greif, CEO, Four 20 Pharma
• Benedikt Sons, Co-Founder and CEO, Cansativa Group
• Matthias Fischer, Founder and Managing Director, Canymed, CCO, Grünhorn
• Dr. rer. nat. Adrian Fischer, Physician and Natural Scientist, Co-Founder and Managing Director, DEMECAN

Click here to watch a video of the panel discussion.