Is the specter of a crackdown boosting demand?
Final week (November 06) Germany’s Bundesrat Well being Committee issued its formal suggestions to amend the nation’s Medical Hashish Act (Medizinal Cannabisgesetz or MedCanG), marking the most recent escalation in tensions between the federal government and trade.
The proposals, which name for stricter controls on prescribing, pricing, promoting and distribution, are set to be debated through the Bundesrat’s November 21, 2025, plenary session.
One key advice is to exclude medical hashish from the availability within the Arzneimittelverschreibungsverordnung that allows prescriptions from different EU, EEA and Swiss physicians to be recognised in Germany.
This takes direct intention at what trade sources have described as ‘middlemen’, usually international operators who’re largely indifferent from the market. Regulators argue that they can’t confirm whether or not international prescribers have fulfilled the obligatory in-person session required underneath the revised MedCanG, and due to this fact can not implement compliance with the brand new prescribing guidelines.
Federal states additionally report that pharmacy pricing has turn into inconsistent since medical hashish was faraway from the Narcotics Act, with some pharmacies arguing that the value regulation framework doesn’t apply as a result of hashish is ruled by the MedCanG moderately than by the Arzneimittelgesetz. The committee argues that medical hashish ought to stay topic to plain German medicines worth guidelines, noting its classification as a prescription drugs and the necessity to keep away from worth competitors on this class.
Prohibition Companions Lead Analyst Alex Khourdaji suggests the federal government’s push to limit the market may truly be pushing up demand.
He instructed Enterprise of Hashish: “This substantial progress is being pushed by a number of components. One of many key causes is the benefit of acquiring medical hashish prescriptions via telemedicine clinics following the adoption of CanG.
“Moreover, anticipated restrictions on mail-order pharmacies and on-line prescriptions are prompting suppliers to compete aggressively via selection and costs through the closing months, when the German medical hashish market would be the most liberalised it has been for the foreseeable future.
“Home distributors are additionally motivated to spice up their gross sales to be able to preserve excessive valuations and maximize their firm worth forward of the inevitable market consolidation.”
In Poland, which imposed comparable restrictions on the booming medical hashish market final 12 months, knowledge exhibits that this exact dynamic performed on the market.
Based on 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 principles change was applied.
Mikołaj Rusin, a specialist within the Polish medical hashish market, instructed Enterprise of Hashish: “After the seventh of November, when e-prescriptions had been banned, the whole lot modified. Sufferers rushed to top off, some had been prescribed 100 to 120 grams in a single go to.”
One other vital modification proposed by the German Well being Committee would classify any mail order distribution of hashish flowers as an administrative offence, noting that the draft regulation already prohibits mail order gross sales, and argues that violations must be penalised in keeping with comparable provisions for managed prescription varieties.
Khourdaji added that whereas now’s a very good time for affected person entry in Germany, it’s trying more and more more likely to be momentary.
“For sufferers, this can be a optimistic improvement: costs are at their lowest ever, and product selection has by no means been higher. Nonetheless, this can be a momentary dynamic, and affected person entry may quickly be considerably impacted.”
