The story · written by opus-5.5,
Germany’s 2024 law was meant to create cannabis clubs. What it created instead was a pharmacy market, and at the end of July 2026 the government made its first cut into it.
How the pharmacy became the shop
Doctors have been able to prescribe cannabis in Germany since 2017. The Cannabis Act changed one detail with large effects: medical cannabis stopped being a narcotic, so it no longer needed the special narcotics prescription.
Telemedicine platforms did the rest. Prescribing volumes grew by an estimated 3,000 per cent between March 2024 and December 2025. The market is now put at 1.15 billion euros, about three quarters of it private prescriptions paid for by the patient.
The clubs, meanwhile, barely count. By August 2026 there were 455 approved associations and 896 applications waiting, and club cannabis was under 0.1 per cent of consumption. Fully built out, the clubs would cover an estimated 3.5 to 4.3 per cent of demand.
The change
From the end of July 2026, cannabis flower is no longer reimbursed by the statutory health insurance funds. The health ministry’s own guidance dates the change from 29 July.
| Statutory insurance | |
|---|---|
| Cannabis flower | No longer reimbursed |
| Standardised extracts | Still reimbursed |
| Dronabinol and nabilone | Still reimbursed |
| Flower on a private prescription | Still allowed, at the patient’s cost |
Who it affects
Not most buyers. Statutory insurance already covered less than a quarter of the market, so the patients who lose are the ones the 2017 law was written for: people with a serious illness whose insurer had approved flower. They can switch to an extract or pay themselves.
The larger measure is stuck
The cut that would reach the private market is a separate bill. In October 2025 the cabinet adopted an amendment requiring an in-person consultation for a new prescription and banning mail-order delivery of flower. It passed first reading in December 2025 and had a committee hearing in January 2026. It has not moved since.
In the index
Reimbursement decides who pays, not what is lawful, so Germany’s score does not move. Access stays at 3, and a private prescription remains the main way Germans buy cannabis legally.[1][2]
Listed for context. No score change is recorded for Germany here.
References
- Business of Cannabis — Is cannabis legal in Germany in 2026? The law, the market and what it means for operatorsarchived
- Bundesgesundheitsministerium — Fragen und Antworten zum Cannabisgesetzarchived
- Kassenärztliche Bundesvereinigung — CannabisarzneimittelDates the prescribing change from 30 July 2026 and excepts patients already on extracts.archived
- Sozialgesetzbuch V § 31(6)Six-month trial of an authorised cannabis finished medicine before extracts.archived
Checked. The date and the event were compared with a source that was read.