Report: German medical cannabis sales to exceed $455M in 2024

Medical cannabis sales in Germany are on pace to exceed a record 420 million euros (roughly $455.2 million) in 2024 and could reach 1 billion euros by 2028, according to “The German Cannabis Report” released Wednesday by Prohibition Partners, a London-based data and market intelligence company.

Sales of medical cannabis in state-licensed pharmacies in the European nation increased 30% in the third quarter of 2023 and accelerated more after new laws took effect in April, the report notes.

Cannabis laws in Germany – where the ruling coalition is fulfilling a 2021 campaign promise to legalize adult-use cultivation and sales of the drug – are among Europe’s most permissive.

Germany, which legalized medical cannabis in 2017, has 200,000-plus patients in a nation of more than 84 million residents.

Physicians are allowed to prescribe the drug for any condition that they deem might be improved through the use of cannabis.

The cost of cannabis obtained in pharmacies can be reimbursed via the country’s public health care system.

The country’s new Cannabis Act, which went into effect in April, allows for home growing of recreational cannabis and lays the legal groundwork for so-called “cultivation social clubs.” 

But it also increased the number of medical cannabis patients, according to “The German Cannabis Report.”

That’s in part because of restrictions lifted as part of the move toward adult-use legalization.

Though domestic companies are now free from earlier quotas that limited production, Germany is in part relying on imports from abroad to fulfill this demand.

Imports increased 44% to an all-time quarterly high of 11,705 kilograms (roughly 25,800 pounds) in the second quarter of 2024, according to the report.