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 going through hashish telehealth. Via the lens of Australia’s prosecutions, Poland’s coverage reversal, and Germany’s pending laws, we discover how telehealth grew to become 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 influence 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 may considerably clamp down on the booming medical hashish telemedicine trade.
This got here scorching on the heels of comparable motion in Australia, one other market which has seen exponential development due to the benefit of entry provided 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 method off being put into legislation, it has already sparked outrage from many trade voices.
Its potential influence stays troublesome to gauge, however a helpful case examine, one many German hashish enterprise homeowners are actually trying 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 growing medical hashish markets.
Poland’s crackdown
In August 2024, the Polish Ministry of Well being introduced proposals for a significant restriction of its on-line medical hashish prescription framework, with some important parallels to Germany’s latest draft modification.
When this was carried out 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 problem an ‘e-prescription’ (there are not any bodily prescriptions for medical hashish) after conducting an in-person examination of the affected person.
Though major care physicians (POZs), Poland’s common practitioners, are nonetheless capable of problem prescriptions by way of on-line consultations, solely a handful achieve this in follow resulting from ongoing warning and a scarcity of training round hashish.
In contrast to in Germany, this laws was initially drafted to fight the extreme uptick in Fentanyl, oxycodone, morphine prescriptions. Nonetheless, following a session with the medical group, who famous the equally speedy rise of medical hashish prescriptions, it was later included on this record.
Mikołaj Rusin, a specialist within the Polish medical hashish market, instructed Enterprise of Hashish: “It’s a must to perceive that in Poland, we’ve had quite a lot 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 via telemedicine. That was actually the core of the issue.
“No, at first it solely lined laborious medicine like fentanyl and different opioids. Medical hashish wasn’t included. However then the medical chamber raised an important level: they stated that after we legalised medical hashish and allowed it to be prescribed by way of e-prescriptions, it felt—at the least to docs—like we have been legalising leisure hashish.”
Its influence by the numbers
In response to the newest official information 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 carried out.
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 important enterprise alternative and began registering extra strains,” Rusin defined.
“However after the seventh of November, when e-prescriptions have been banned, the whole lot modified. Sufferers rushed to replenish, some have been prescribed 100 to 120 grams in a single go to.”
Information from PEX in October confirmed sufferers bought a document 90,388 packages of cannabis-based merchandise from pharmacies a 15% month-on-month improve, with whole expenditures reaching PLN 42.67 million, practically PLN 5.7 million greater than in all of 2022.
Pharmacists reported a surge in gross sales forward of the November rule adjustments. “Sufferers purchased the whole lot they may. They didn’t care about costs or producers,” one instructed 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 top of the 12 months.
Following stagnation in the beginning of 2025, the market started to return to some significant development in March, rising by round 23% in February, in accordance with information revealed in Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
Whereas information 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 usually, partly as a result of the associated fee has risen.
“Earlier than, a telemedicine go to value 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 whole value is effectively over €150. That’s an enormous barrier.
“Just a few clinics now supply a number of prescriptions per go to to make issues simpler, however most solely problem one. In case you’re a daily client, meaning coming again incessantly, which provides value and trouble.”
Actual world influence
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 accordance with Rusin.
“At this level, promoting 10 tonnes would already be thought-about a significant success.”
For enterprise homeowners within the throes of a market growth, this, in fact, will come as disappointing information. However zooming out, and contemplating the long-term influence of this restriction, will this profit sufferers and the broader market?
“It relies upon,” Rusin stated, including: “On one hand, sure, it was a crucial 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 need 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 greater degree. That’s an enormous optimistic.
“However from the affected person’s facet, it’s an actual downside. In smaller cities, these with 50,000 to 100,000 residents, there usually aren’t any native clinics. Sufferers must journey to main cities like Warsaw or Poznań. That prices money and time, particularly when the worth of care has already gone up.
“From a enterprise standpoint, it’s additionally tougher. Pharmacies are cautious, they don’t know if the principles 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 individuals.
“Two years in the past, this market began getting quite a lot of hype. However the introduction of rules round e-visits cooled issues down for some. In my opinion, as an trade, we will truly take one thing optimistic from this. I can already see how the enterprise has grow to be extra skilled over the previous six months, those that stayed are extra dedicated, and in the long term, that ought to carry good outcomes for all of us,” he concluded.
