Over the previous few years, telemedicine has reshaped how sufferers entry medical hashish, launching a wave of digital clinics throughout Europe and past. However now, that wave is breaking.
On this particular collection, Enterprise of Hashish investigates the worldwide backlash dealing with hashish telehealth. By means of the lens of Australia’s prosecutions, Poland’s coverage reversal, and Germany’s pending laws, we discover how telehealth turned each a lifeline for sufferers and a legal responsibility for policymakers, and what comes subsequent for the trade constructed round it.
Within the coming days we’ll be diving into the potential impression of an identical change in Germany. You’ll be able to learn Half 1 right here.
Earlier this week, Germany revealed a draft invoice that will considerably clamp down on the booming medical hashish telemedicine trade.
This got here sizzling on the heels of comparable motion in Australia, one other market which has seen exponential development because of the benefit of entry supplied by these comparatively new platforms.
Whereas Germany’s draft invoice, which might require new sufferers to have an in-person session and ban prescriptions being despatched on to sufferers’ houses, remains to be a means off being put into regulation, it has already sparked outrage from many trade voices.
Its potential impression stays troublesome to gauge, however a helpful case research, one many German hashish enterprise homeowners are actually seeking to for perception, is the Polish market.
Some see Poland’s telemedicine crackdown as a cautionary story, others see its subsequent rebound as a beacon of hope. Regardless, it now seems to be the brand new actuality for creating medical hashish markets.
Poland’s crackdown
In August 2024, the Polish Ministry of Well being introduced proposals for a serious restriction of its on-line medical hashish prescription framework, with some important parallels to Germany’s current draft modification.
When this was applied in early November 2024, ‘e-visits’ or on-line consultations have been restricted.
Successfully, this meant that non-public docs from specialised hashish clinics may solely situation an ‘e-prescription’ (there aren’t any bodily prescriptions for medical hashish) after conducting an in-person examination of the affected person.
Though main care physicians (POZs), Poland’s normal practitioners, are nonetheless capable of situation prescriptions by way of on-line consultations, solely a handful achieve this in apply as a consequence of ongoing warning and an absence of training round hashish.
Not like in Germany, this laws was initially drafted to fight the extreme uptick in Fentanyl, oxycodone, morphine prescriptions. Nonetheless, following a session with the medical neighborhood, who famous the equally speedy rise of medical hashish prescriptions, it was later included on this listing.
Mikołaj Rusin, a specialist within the Polish medical hashish market, advised Enterprise of Hashish: “You need to perceive that in Poland, we’ve had lots of points with prescriptions, not simply with hashish. So, in the midst of 2024, there was an enormous controversy round fentanyl and different opioids, which have been being prescribed by means of telemedicine. That was actually the core of the issue.
“No, at first it solely lined arduous medication like fentanyl and different opioids. Medical hashish wasn’t included. However then the medical chamber raised a vital level: they mentioned that after we legalised medical hashish and allowed it to be prescribed by way of e-prescriptions, it felt—not less than to docs—like we have been legalising leisure hashish.”
Its impression by the numbers
In response to the most recent official knowledge from the e-Well being Centre, Poland’s official registry, collated by Hemp & Well being, Poland’s medical hashish prescription numbers peaked in October 2024, only a month earlier than the foundations change was applied.
On the time, Enterprise of Hashish reported that information of the upcoming change had pushed a last-minute scramble.
“In mid-2024, the market was exploding—round 75,000 sufferers a month. Firms have been excited. They thought Poland was an excellent enterprise alternative and began registering extra strains,” Rusin defined.
“However after the seventh of November, when e-prescriptions have been banned, every thing modified. Sufferers rushed to top off, some have been prescribed 100 to 120 grams in a single go to.”
Knowledge from PEX in October confirmed sufferers bought a file 90,388 packages of cannabis-based merchandise from pharmacies a 15% month-on-month enhance, with whole expenditures reaching PLN 42.67 million, almost PLN 5.7 million greater than in all of 2022.
Pharmacists reported a surge in gross sales forward of the November rule modifications. “Sufferers purchased every thing they may. They didn’t care about costs or producers,” one advised the organisation.
Nonetheless, as Rusin predicted, this exacerbated the incoming crash. After on-line prescriptions have been restricted, the ultimate months of 2024 noticed prescription numbers drop by over 54% by the tip of the yr.
Following stagnation at the beginning of 2025, the market started to return to some significant development in March, rising by round 23% in February, in response to knowledge revealed in Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
Whereas knowledge suggests this development was a part of a broader seasonal pattern, with prescriptions for different managed substances (fentanyl, opioids) mirroring the expansion in hashish, the rebound has caught the attention of many German market hawks.
Rusin continued: “It was a dramatic fall. Issues improved barely in March when a number of high quality clinics opened, however I estimate round 20% of sufferers turned to the black market and haven’t returned.
“The remainder have stayed, however their buying patterns have modified. They’re shopping for much less typically, partly as a result of the fee has risen.
“Earlier than, a telemedicine go to price round 100 złoty—about €25. Now, an in-person go to is nearer to 200 złoty (€50). Add within the product and prescription charges, and the full price is effectively over €150. That’s an enormous barrier.
“A couple of clinics now supply a number of prescriptions per go to to make issues simpler, however most solely situation one. If you happen to’re a daily shopper, meaning coming again often, which provides price and problem.”
Actual world impression
Though the market seems to be recovering, Rusin factors out that it stays effectively under the runaway development seen all through 2024.
Earlier than the change in laws, officers had granted permission to import 20 tonnes into Poland, a determine many noticed as an unrealistic gross sales goal, in response to Rusin.
“At this level, promoting 10 tonnes would already be thought of a serious success.”
For enterprise homeowners within the throes of a market increase, this, after all, will come as disappointing information. However zooming out, and contemplating the long-term impression of this restriction, will this profit sufferers and the broader market?
“It relies upon,” Rusin mentioned, including: “On one hand, sure, it was a obligatory change. We had unprofessional clinics working, and in a single case, a physician was writing as much as 500 prescriptions a day. That’s insane. Pharmacies didn’t wish to work with these sorts of clinics or docs.
“Now, the clinics are far more skilled. They rent correct docs, take care with documentation, it’s all on a a lot larger stage. That’s an enormous constructive.
“However from the affected person’s facet, it’s an actual downside. In smaller cities, these with 50,000 to 100,000 residents, there typically aren’t any native clinics. Sufferers should journey to main cities like Warsaw or Poznań. That prices money and time, particularly when the value of care has already gone up.
“From a enterprise standpoint, it’s additionally more durable. Pharmacies are cautious, they don’t know if the foundations will change once more, so that they’re reluctant to commit. Proper now, the medical hashish market in Poland solely actually works in cities with greater than 100,000 folks.
“Two years in the past, this market began getting lots of hype. However the introduction of rules round e-visits cooled issues down for some. For my part, as an trade, we will really take one thing constructive from this. I can already see how the enterprise has turn out to be extra skilled over the previous six months, those that stayed are extra dedicated, and in the long term, that ought to convey good outcomes for all of us,” he concluded.
