Why are Europe’s rising markets excluding flower?
Martinez argues that the shift away from flower is a pure evolution in a market targeted purely on hashish as a medication, serving to grease the wheels of integration into present healthcare fashions.
“Each France and Spain have launched extremely restrictive, hospital-oriented programmes,” he defined. “In that setting, excluding flower is a cautious selection. Flower introduces variability in dosing and administration that may be troublesome to reconcile with pharmaceutical norms.
“Standardised codecs – oils, capsules, or device-delivered extracts – are simpler for clinicians to prescribe, monitor, and combine into present medical workflows.”
Spain’s detailed preparation directions, standardised cannabinoid concentrations and strict dosage necessities illustrate this deal with pharmaceutical consistency, which is way more durable to realize with dried flower the place cannabinoid content material can differ from batch to batch and will be influenced by a myriad of things.
“France, for instance, is coming into 2026 in a transitional section from a pilot program to a everlasting system,” he continued.
“It’s a tightly managed setting aligned with pharmaceutical requirements, targeted on consistency and medical oversight slightly than fast scale. In that context, regulators are likely to prioritise codecs that look and behave like typical medicines: standardised preparations, managed dosing, and supply techniques that match inside present hospital and pharmacy fashions.”
“That naturally drives curiosity in various codecs, and it’s the place Curaleaf has been main. We have been first to market with hashish pastilles within the UK, and we’ve launched Europe’s first CE-certified medical inhalation machine, with extra type elements coming.”
The ‘notion challenge’
Whereas dried flower stays dominant in virtually each established medical hashish market, these merchandise are sometimes lifted immediately from leisure markets like Canada and the US, carrying the identical names and branding, and with them the lingering stigma.
This affiliation is seeing politicians, medical professionals, and even sufferers change into more and more uncomfortable with its use as an on a regular basis remedy.
“Notion issues. In lots of international locations, an inhaled hashish flower nonetheless carries the stigma of leisure use. Martinez acknowledged.
“A medical-grade machine helps draw a transparent line between therapeutic use and that legacy stoner picture. When a affected person makes use of a rigorously examined vaporiser or liquid inhaler, it appears to be like and feels extra like a authentic medical remedy.”
Australia, Germany, and the UK all face ongoing challenges managing the notion that their medical hashish programmes function de facto leisure entry, notably given flower’s dominance.
As we’ve mentioned beforehand in protection of the incoming French market, by choosing a extra pharmaceutically targeted market from the get-go, this dynamic will be largely averted.
“This distinction is commonly what permits medical hashish frameworks to achieve political acceptance within the first place. So sure, the gadgets clear up a medical want for precision and security, however additionally they clear up a notion drawback by signalling that we’re not simply handing out joints to sufferers. In doing so, they provide regulators and clinicians confidence that hashish will be administered in a ‘doctor-friendly’ and socially acceptable manner.
“In early-stage medical packages, regulators are eager to keep away from something that appears leisure. Inhaled flower nonetheless carries that affiliation in lots of international locations. Beginning with non-flower merchandise permits policymakers to border these techniques as strictly medical and construct legitimacy earlier than probably broadening entry.”
With this in thoughts, nonetheless, Martinez means that ‘regulatory change doesn’t get rid of underlying affected person want, and demand doesn’t disappear by decree’.
As such, these incoming frameworks will ‘check’ whether or not various remedy types ‘really meet affected person want’, or whether or not they show to be merely a ‘marginal resolution for a slender group of sufferers’.
“In different phrases, the strategy is comprehensible for a cautious rollout, however its practicality and inclusivity might want to show themselves over time.”
Whereas affected person demand for flower, a well-recognized and dependable type of remedy, stays dominant within the majority of medical hashish markets, its turning into more and more clear that pharmaceutical-grade supply gadgets will outline the following section of European market progress.
Within the second a part of this collection, we’ll look at the technical necessities behind CE-certified medical gadgets, the medical case for liquid inhalation, and what Curaleaf’s multi-year machine funding says in regards to the course of Europe’s market.
