The blistering progress of Germany’s medical hashish sector confirmed no indicators of abating by way of the second quarter of 2025, with imports rising one other 15% to hit new information.
New figures from the Federal Institute for Medicine and Medical Units (BfArM), printed this week, confirmed that the overall amount of medical hashish flower imported into Germany by way of April, Might and June hit 43.3 tonnes, up from 37.5 in Q1.
This exponential progress may quickly be tamed, because the German authorities prepares to impose controversial restrictions on telehealth prescriptions, possible resulting in dramatic oversupply in an already saturated market.
With the deadline for public session on the proposed modifications to medical hashish regulation now closed, and a wider report on the influence of the CanG Act anticipated within the coming months, Europe’s hashish darling faces an unsure future.
Report import volumes
Canada has remained the dominant provider of hashish to Germany, as all through a lot of the world, seeing volumes improve by over 1 / 4 in Q2, totalling over 20 tonnes, practically half of the overall for the interval.
Portugal additionally continued to see exports into Germany improve, rising an additional 11% to just about 13.5 tonnes.
With different nations, significantly in South America, seeing vital declines in export volumes, it’s possible that extra hashish is coming into Germany by way of Portugal, with producers sending uncooked product to Portugal for processing earlier than heading to the German market.
Imports from Africa additionally noticed a major rise over the interval, with imports coming from South Africa and Lesotho rising 37% and 49% respectively.
Equally, imports from the east of Europe have been additionally ramped up over the interval, with the Czech Republic (17%) and North Macedonia (27%) additionally seeing double-digit will increase.
Firstly, Q2 2025 noticed a bigger improve in imported volumes over the earlier quarter than Q1 did, which reveals that not solely is the market rising, however the price at which it’s rising remains to be rising.
Prohibition Companions’ Senior Analyst, Lawrence Purkiss, instructed Enterprise of Hashish: “We consider that the roughly one tonne of hashish marked as coming from the UK is definitely coming from Jersey, which is a optimistic indication for the success of hashish cultivation there.
“Everyone seems to be, after all, now bracing for the influence of the brand new laws coming by way of in Germany. As soon as they do take impact, it will likely be a problem for operators to hyperlink provide with demand.
“With the volumes of imports nonetheless rising, the market goes to wish to seek out different strategies to get these merchandise into the fingers of sufferers effectively. If such strategies can’t be discovered, then the market shall be in a state of affairs of great oversupply.”
Affected person influence and considerations over return to the black market
As we reported final month, the German Federal Ministry of Well being not too long ago confirmed and printed a draft modification concentrating on the loosely regulated telemedicine market in Germany.
The federal government’s justification for the transfer was tied to this staggering degree of progress and fears that the system is being abused by each operators and sufferers.
As such, the brand new amendments suggest, amongst different issues, making in-person consultations obligatory, and crucially banning prescriptions from being despatched on to sufferers’ properties, as an alternative being disbursed by way of pharmacies.
A public session interval adopted quickly afterwards, with the deadline coming to an finish final week (August 01).
Now, submissions from various organisations (all of which have been compiled by Krautinvest right here) shall be thought-about by the federal government, earlier than any additional amendments shall be made to the laws.
In its formal response, German Hashish Enterprise Affiliation (BvCW) says it helps efforts to curb prescription abuse, however argues that a number of proposed measures danger creating new boundaries for reliable sufferers.
It argues that these modifications would significantly hurt sufferers in rural areas, who usually depend on on-line ordering as a result of specialist pharmacies are scarce. It warns that reducing off this provide channel may push sufferers again to the black market.
The affiliation additionally requires value regulation to stay clear and constant. It desires lawmakers to explicitly verify that hashish flowers stay topic to Germany’s current pharmaceutical value controls, to keep away from reimbursement disputes and guarantee uniform pricing throughout the nation.
Whereas the Federal Union of German Associations of Pharmacists (ABDA) helps the banning of mail-order medical hashish, it has additionally raised considerations about pricing throughout the nation, proposing that MedCanG be amended to explicitly require the applying of drug value controls to hashish flowers to shut a regulatory loophole.
The considerations raised over affected person entry have been mirrored by Bloomwell Group, which has printed new information on the unfold of medical hashish sufferers throughout the nation.
It suggests sufferers within the south are way more more likely to have prescriptions than these within the north, and that nearly half of all sufferers dwell greater than 10 kilometres from a pharmacy licensed to dispense hashish therapy.
“If half of hashish sufferers can’t legally receive their remedy from a pharmacy inside a 10-kilometre radius, what different stays in addition to the illicit market?” requested Bloomwell’s co-founder and chief government, Niklas Kouparanis.
He predicted the modification wouldn’t move in its present type, noting that the Social Democratic Celebration, a coalition accomplice within the governing CDU-led authorities, has already stated it is not going to assist measures that might undermine affected person security with out strong proof.
