Final month (January 15, 2026) Germany’s Bundesrag held a debate on the hotly contested amendments geared toward considerably proscribing medical hashish prescriptions, and probably reworking the business.
Throughout a earlier vote late final 12 months (November 2025), the higher home of the German parliament voted to approve some, however not the entire measures, crucially rejecting proposals to ban mail-order prescriptions.
Nevertheless, throughout its plenary session, the chamber additionally adopted three core amendments to the Medical Hashish Act (MedCanG), focusing on overseas prescriptions, pricing inconsistencies and promoting practices which have fuelled the sector’s explosive development.
That is removed from the tip of the street for the invoice, which continues to be topic to alter earlier than a ultimate vote subsequent 12 months. Whereas the vote doesn’t give us a definitive reply to how the business will likely be regulated shifting ahead, it does spotlight a disconnect between authorities rhetoric and consumption knowledge.
Well being Minister Nina Warken has described the spike in hashish imports since final April as ‘clear abuse’, but the lately revealed annual Epidemiological Survey of Substance Abuse discovered no statistically vital improve in consumption post-legalisation, 12-month prevalence rose from 8.8% in 2021 to 9.8% in 2024, persevering with a long-term development however exhibiting no legalisation-driven spike.
Stefan Fritsch, founder and CEO of Grünhorn, argues that efficient regulation requires proportionality and proof. Whereas not against oversight itself, he believes the proposed restrictions lack the medical grounding mandatory for sound healthcare coverage.
“What many observers outdoors the business might not realise is that Warken superior the proposal with out first securing inside alignment inside her occasion,” he informed Enterprise of Hashish.
“If I needed a invoice to move, the very first thing I’d do is consolidate assist inside my very own occasion, which she didn’t. As an alternative, she went out alone and mentioned, ‘That is what we’re going to do,’ just for members of her personal occasion to instantly say, ‘No, we’re not.’”
Since that preliminary rollout, the legislative course of has moved right into a extra substantive part, with skilled hearings and authorized scrutiny now shaping parliamentary debate. Nevertheless, Fritsch stays involved that the underlying proposals nonetheless lack the proof base essential to justify their impression on affected person entry.
Coalition dynamics and hashish
Following Germany’s February 2025 elections, the formation of a CDU/CSU-SPD coalition initially raised alarms throughout the hashish business. The CDU/CSU had campaigned on repealing CanG totally, whereas the SPD remained dedicated to the reform as one of many earlier coalition’s flagship achievements.
Nevertheless, the ultimate coalition settlement, reached in April 2025, left the Hashish Act intact, committing solely to an ‘open-ended analysis’ with outcomes anticipated in 2026.
“In Germany, we’ve got two events governing collectively. Traditionally, the CDU has all the time watered down its positions for the SPD. In these first 100 days, you’ll be able to see they haven’t pushed again exhausting on something the SPD has needed, as a result of they’re targeted on maintaining the coalition intact. I don’t assume hashish goes to be the problem that makes them out of the blue draw a line within the sand.”
With quite a few votes nonetheless wanted to carry the invoice into regulation, Fritsch predicts the following phases are prone to be slowed down in politics.
“Hashish is only one of many points on the desk. Germany spends extra on healthcare than some other developed nation however nonetheless has poor outcomes in some areas, like coronary heart assault mortality. With so many greater priorities and with this invoice being so controversial, I feel any progress will likely be gradual.”
The measure should nonetheless move by way of parliamentary committees and safe a majority vote within the Bundestag, the place the SPD has already signalled opposition.
“We’re already seeing the SPD, the coalition occasion, publicly saying, ‘We’re not doing this,’” Fritsch mentioned.
“On telemedicine, I don’t assume they’ll be capable of require sufferers to bodily go to a health care provider’s workplace, however they’ll seemingly tighten the foundations, probably requiring video consultations somewhat than simply on-line kinds.”
Fritsch’s concern shouldn’t be with oversight of telemedicine practices, however with blanket prohibitions that will disproportionately prohibit entry for chronically unwell sufferers, these with mobility limitations, or sufferers in rural areas the place cannabis-prescribing medical doctors stay scarce.
He argues the problem isn’t regulation itself, it’s whether or not the measures are proportionate and really deal with the issues they declare to unravel.
The pharmacy mail-order ban faces notably steep authorized hurdles. As Fritsch factors out, pharmacies are at the moment permitted to ship much more harmful managed substances, together with fentanyl and opioids.
“It’s legally troublesome to justify banning mail-order hashish when pharmacies are allowed to ship fentanyl and opioids. Hashish is one thing individuals can develop at residence with water and light-weight, so forbidding it by mail simply doesn’t make logical sense. I feel that half will likely be eliminated totally.”
Optimistic shift ‘not being thought-about in any respect’
The stakes for sufferers are substantial. In response to Bloomwell Group’s newest ‘Hashish Barometer’ survey of two,500 medical hashish sufferers, 41.7% would revert to the illicit market if digital entry had been blocked. A separate survey by MedCanOneStop discovered even greater numbers, with 59.2% of sufferers indicating they’d swap to illicit sources.
Grünhorn’s inside knowledge paints an identical image. “We truly ran a survey to see what number of would try this if teleclinics or on-line pharmacies had been banned, and over 60% mentioned they’d.”
In response to Fritsch, in actuality, the black market in Germany is ‘massive, environment friendly, and never what politicians assume it’s’.
The desk under, primarily based on Grünhorn’s knowledge, exhibits the proportion of sufferers in every state earlier than and after partial legalisation, together with the online change (delta)
| State | State (German) | Earlier than (%) | After (%) | Delta (%) |
| North Rhine-Westphalia | Nordrhein-Westfalen | 9.4 | 12.9 | 3.5 |
| Schleswig-Holstein | Schleswig-Holstein | 3.84 | 6.55 | 2.71 |
| Saxony | Sachsen | 3.2 | 5.88 | 2.68 |
| Decrease Saxony | Niedersachsen | 6.73 | 8.39 | 1.66 |
| Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania | Mecklenburg-Vorpommern | 1.61 | 3.14 | 1.52 |
| Hamburg | Hamburg | 0.74 | 2.23 | 1.48 |
| Saxony-Anhalt | Sachsen-Anhalt | 1.55 | 3.02 | 1.47 |
| Thuringia | Thüringen | 1.65 | 2.98 | 1.34 |
| Brandenburg | Brandenburg | 2.66 | 3.49 | 0.82 |
| Bremen | Bremen | 0.41 | 0.53 | 0.13 |
| Berlin | Berlin | 3.12 | 3.01 | -0.11 |
| Saarland | Saarland | 1.62 | 1.44 | -0.18 |
| Baden-Württemberg | Baden-Württemberg | 13.5 | 12.6 | -0.9 |
| Hesse | Hessen | 7.82 | 6.14 | -1.68 |
| Rhineland-Palatinate | Rheinland-Pfalz | 10.5 | 7.46 | -3.04 |
| Bavaria | Bayern | 31.65 | 20.25 | -11.41 |
“They think about shady gangsters with weapons, however in actuality, it’s largely on-line, delivery-based, and really fast. Many sufferers nonetheless use it at this time regardless of authorized choices, just because it’s so handy,”
Pushing sufferers again towards this method would characterize a coverage failure much more extreme than the present dynamic.
“A affected person who was shopping for from the black market continues to be a affected person. Politicians usually say, ‘Take a look at all these individuals coming from the black market’, however these are individuals who have been utilizing hashish to assist with again ache, sleep points, stress, insomnia, no matter it could be, for a very long time. They’ve now moved right into a authorized, safer channel, with medical doctors prescribing and pharmacies meting out.”
“The optimistic facet of that shift shouldn’t be being thought-about in any respect.”
The affected person demographic additional undermines the federal government’s framing of medical hashish customers as primarily leisure shoppers working below the guise of medical remedy. Grünhorn’s knowledge exhibits the typical affected person age is 35, a cohort extra prone to have households and profession duties than to be in search of leisure highs.
“Most individuals in that age vary have youngsters, careers, and household duties. It’s probably not a demographic for leisure abuse,” he continued. “If the typical was 25, then positive, perhaps we’d have a unique dialog. However 35-year-olds aren’t out partying each weekend. That stereotype simply doesn’t match the truth.”
The broader concern is that blanket restrictions threat treating all medical hashish sufferers below a basic suspicion of misuse, a departure from how different managed prescription medicines are regulated.
Adaptation will overcome panic
Fritsch expects regulatory evolution somewhat than revolution, and when adjustments do come, they’re prone to be incremental.
“The federal government nonetheless must work by way of suggestions internally and align with the SPD. We’re unlikely to see motion till someday subsequent 12 months.”
“I anticipate there will likely be adjustments, perhaps video consultations as an alternative of on-line kinds, however not a whole reversal. It will be an enormous mistake to swing all the way in which again after such an enormous change.”
Extra to the purpose, recriminalisation is wholly impractical, not simply politically.
“In the event that they tried to reclassify hashish as a narcotic, the implications for regulation enforcement are unimaginable. Native regulation enforcement and authorities businesses are legally obliged to trace each single milligram of a narcotic, with so many individuals now rising at residence, this may be unimaginable.
As Germany’s hashish sector races in direction of its second 12 months post-CanG, the business faces a interval of uncertainty and adjustment.
Political restrictions stay a risk, however not an inevitability. Market consolidation seems sure, however what appears abundantly clear is that hashish in Germany has now crossed the Rubicon.
“Sure, it was an enormous change, and sure, some elements have gone too far, however that’s regular with a shift of this scale,” Fritsch concluded.
“Now it’s as much as the business to tug again in sure areas and for the federal government to discover a framework it’s snug shifting ahead with.
“The lid’s off, they wont get it again on.”
