The emerging legal cannabis industry in Germany is one of the most exciting markets globally by many measures. Legal medical cannabis sales through pharmacies launched in the European nation in 2017, and lawmakers approved a historic national adult-use cannabis legalization measure in 2024. A considerable amount of market data is now flowing out of Germany, providing valuable insights for investors, entrepreneurs and policymakers.

As Germany’s medical cannabis sector has progressed and matured over the years, it has become clearer just how many patients the sector serves. Unlike state-level medical cannabis programs in the United States, in which there is typically a central registry that makes it easier to pinpoint the number of registered patients at any given time, Germany’s patient count is less straightforward to calculate. Some medical cannabis patients receive reimbursements through the public healthcare system, while others are “self-payers” and acquire their medicine through private means.

Evaluating Germany’s Medical Cannabis Patient Count

According to leading international cannabis economist Beau Whitney, founder of Whitney Economics, there are an estimated 200k-300k medical cannabis patients in Germany who are not self-payers, and an estimated 500k-600k self-paying medical cannabis patients in the country. The rise in the use of telemedicine in Germany in recent years has directly contributed to a steady increase in medical cannabis patients making their purchases through legal sources.

Another major contributing factor to increased legal safe medical cannabis access in Germany is the number of medical cannabis pharmacies operating in the European nation. As cited in a German Cannabis Business Association (BvCW) newsletter, roughly 2,500 of Germany’s 17,000 registered pharmacies now offer medical cannabis.

Medical Cannabis Imports

One of the most insightful sources of data that puts into context how much Germany’s medical cannabis industry has increased in size in recent years pertains to medical cannabis imports. Germany’s Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM) publishes quarterly data for imports, and in just the third quarter of 2025 alone, Germany imported nearly 57 tons of medical cannabis products.

To put that figure into perspective, consider that in the third quarter of 2024, about 20.654 tons of medical cannabis products were imported, which was a record at that time. In the first nine months of 2025, Germany imported over 142 tons of medical cannabis products. That is a mind-boggling amount, and a testament to the growth of Germany’s legal medical cannabis industry.

Researchers at the IPE Institute for Policy Evaluation conducted a market analysis, determining that Germany’s self-payer medical cannabis market may be worth as much as 2.9 billion euros annually. That is a massive cost saving for Germany’s public healthcare system.

Widespread Benefits

The rise of the legal medical cannabis industry in Germany doesn’t just benefit patients and members of the industry. All of German society benefits to some degree, including from the increased output that a more productive workforce provides the nation via reduced sick days. The German Association of Pharmaceutical Cannabinoid Companies (BPC) estimates that the economic benefit of reduced sick days for cannabis patients in Germany is more than 3.7 billion euros.

As is the case in every large cannabis market, the potential of Germany’s adult-use cannabis sector is much larger than the medical sector from the perspective of the total population. According to the European Union Drugs Agency’s annual estimates, 17.2% of adults in Germany report having consumed cannabis at least once in the last year. Additionally, 8.4% of German adults report having consumed cannabis within the last month. That works out to a total adult-use market of several million consumers.

A vast majority of the German adult-use cannabis market remains unregulated, but that is slowly changing as consumers are afforded more legal options. Germany’s legal recreational cannabis model is built on a handful of components, with all of them having the potential to help the nation’s legal market capture more market share with every passing month.

Germany’s Homegrow Market

Home cultivation is a major facet of Germany’s legal sourcing model, and is proving to be popular among adult consumers. Survey data compiled by the Department of Horticultural Economics at Geisenheim University found that one in ten adult cannabis consumers in Germany have cultivated cannabis since it became legal in April 2024. Another eleven percent “could imagine” doing so in the future.

Cultivation associations are another big component of Germany’s legalization model. According to the German Federal Association of Cannabis Cultivation Associations’ (BCAv) most recent data, 368 cultivation association applications have been approved so far nationwide. A total of 806 applications have been submitted. Considerably more cultivation associations need to be approved for Germany’s legal industry to sufficiently compete with the unregulated market, but the overall total is continuing to increase slowly but surely.

Pilot Trials Needed

A major gap in Germany’s industry right now is that there are still no regional adult-use cannabis commerce pilot trials approved in the country. Dozens of jurisdictions have applied to launch trials, but so far, the number of approvals remains at zero, to the detriment of legal cannabis access and to the detriment of the country’s professed cannabis policy and industry goals. Pilot trials are already operating in several jurisdictions in the Netherlands and Switzerland, with no major issues reported, and hopefully Germany’s government moves forward on approvals sooner rather than later.

With so much going on in Germany right now, and the country continuing to serve as the top market on the continent, it is more important than ever for people interested in getting in on the action to learn about current opportunities and network with industry leaders. The perfect opportunity to do that is in Berlin in April at the International Cannabis Business Conference (ICBC).

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A key component of adult-use cannabis legalization in Germany involves ongoing evaluations by researchers and government officials to gauge if the nation’s cannabis policies and regulations are effective. The data derived from the evaluation efforts, especially the EKOCAN project, will be heavily relied upon by German lawmakers when they make future decisions about German cannabis laws and industry regulations.

Several initial evaluation data points and findings have recently surfaced, and the results are favorable. The information from researchers heavily focuses on three main components:

1. Child and youth protection
2. Public health outcomes
3. Cannabis-related crime

Focus #1: Child and Youth Protection

Regarding the first area of focus, the results of a recent government study found that youth consumption rates have decreased since the first provisions of adult-use cannabis legalization were enacted on April 1, 2024. The German Federal Institute for Public Health recently published data regarding youth cannabis usage rates post-legalization. The “Drug Affinity Study 2025” surveyed 7,001 young people between the ages of 12 and 25 from April to July 2025, and the results were then compared to those from a similar study conducted between April and June 2023.

According to the Federal Institute for Public Health’s assessment of the data before and after legalization, the proportion of youth aged 12 to 17 who reported having consumed cannabis within the last year fell from 6.7% during the survey period in 2023 to 6.1% this year. The proportion of youth who reported having consumed cannabis more than ten times in the past 12 months decreased from 1.3% in 2023 to 1.1% this year. The data effectively debunks predictions by cannabis opponents that adult-use legalization would result in a spike in youth consumption rates.

Focus #2: Public Health Outcomes

Measuring public health outcomes as they relate to cannabis policy modernization efforts is somewhat challenging. However, a key measurement comes in the form of surveying consumers to see if they source their cannabis from legal channels. The theory behind using that measurement is that if consumers obtain their cannabis through home cultivation or regulated sources instead of unregulated sources, the products they consume will be safer and thus public health outcomes will be improved. That is the argument that German lawmakers successfully made to obtain European Union approval for legalization.

“The Cannabis Act (CanG) led to significant changes in the supply channels among adults: 88.4% generally purchased legally produced cannabis in the last six months (home cultivation, including cultivation by friends, cultivation associations, pharmacies); before the law, 23.5% used the now legal sources.” stated the Institute for Addiction Research at the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences and the Evangelical University of Freiburg about a recent collaborative survey they conducted (translated from German to English).

It is worth noting that the reported significant changes in consumer purchasing behavior come at a time when the adult-use cultivation association sector is still experiencing significant bureaucratic hurdles in Germany. According to the most recent data from the Federal Association of Cannabis Cultivation Associations (BCAv), the total number of approved German cultivation association applications is now at 323. BCAv lists that 743 total applications have been submitted to date. Germany’s cannabis community can support exponentially more cultivation associations across the country if afforded the opportunity. The average membership of current German associations is 275 members, according to a recent survey.

Focus #3: Cannabis-Related Crime

The third major focus of ongoing German legalization research and evaluation efforts revolves around how the historic law has impacted cannabis-related crime enforcement in the European nation. According to Jörg Kinzig, Director of the Institute of Criminology at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, cannabis-related crime data demonstrates that such offenses have decreased by over 53 percent after legalization was enacted, from 215,000 offenses in 2023 to 100,000 during the last year.

Cannabis opponents in Germany continue to try to thwart forward progress on the nation’s cannabis policy modernization efforts. However, they have seemingly struggled to spin the currently available data in their favor. A full reversal of adult-use legalization, which some opponents have expressed a desire to pursue, is not justified. Some opponents appear to have pivoted their approach to some degree, and instead of pushing for a full reversal, are trying to pursue changes to the law, such as reducing the number of plants that adults can cultivate in their private residences. Adults in Germany are currently permitted to cultivate up to 3 plants.

Lack of Pilot Trials Hinder Cannabis Legalization System

One major hole that continues to exist in Germany’s legalization system is the lack of approved regional adult-use cannabis commerce pilot trials. Pilot trials are a key component of Germany’s legalization model, and dozens of pilot trial proposals have been submitted and are pending approval from the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food. Pilot trials are already operating in the Netherlands and Switzerland with no major issues reported, and when they are finally launched in Germany, they will provide consumers with more options to source their cannabis products legally. It will further erode Germany’s unregulated market. Pilot trials will also be an important source of additional data for researchers, regulators, and lawmakers in Germany.

All of these topics and facets of Germany’s cannabis public policies, ongoing research efforts, and industry sectors will be discussed extensively at the upcoming International Cannabis Business Conference in Berlin in April 2026.

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