Germany Legalized Cannabis. It Still Doesn’t Have a Pre-Roll Shelf.
Germany rewrote the European cannabis conversation when the Cannabis Act took effect in April 2024. What it did not write was a retail chapter.
The law that stopped at the counter
The first pillar of Germany’s Cannabis Act made adult possession legal, allowed home cultivation and, from July 2024, allowed non-profit cultivation associations. [1] The second pillar was supposed to follow with regional pilot projects testing commercial supply chains through licensed stores. This distinction between legal possession and commercial sales is also important when comparing cannabis legality by country.
It hasn’t. After the 2025 change of government, progress on the commercial pilots effectively stalled. [2] Frankfurt and Hanover, which had announced five-year model projects for controlled sales, saw their applications rejected by the federal agriculture agency (BLE), which ruled that the projects were in substance Pillar 2 pilots and fell outside the law’s research clause. [3]
Germany is Europe’s largest legal adult-use market by population. It still has no shop where you can buy a pre-roll.
The medical channel did the growing
With no retail shelf, demand moved into pharmacies. In 2025 Germany imported 201,094 kg of medical cannabis flower, almost triple the roughly 72,700 kg recorded in 2024, according to the medicines regulator BfArM. Canada supplied about 46% of it, with Portugal second. [4]
Industry analysts value the medical market at around €1.15 billion, and most of it is self-paid rather than covered by insurance. [5] This growth makes Germany an important market to watch within broader cannabis market trends, even without a commercial adult-use retail channel. Domestic supply is thin: the country of 84 million had only three licensed cannabis producers. [6]
The brakes are coming on
Berlin has noticed. In October 2025 the federal cabinet adopted draft amendments to the Medical Cannabis Act (MedCanG) that would require an in-person consultation for new prescriptions and ban mail-order delivery of flower. [5] The bill had its first Bundestag reading on 18 December 2025. [7] As of mid-September 2026 it still had not passed, so telemedicine prescriptions and pharmacy shipping remain legal for now. [8]
A separate move has already landed. On 10 July 2026 the Bundestag passed a health-insurance savings law that removes medical cannabis flower from statutory reimbursement. Patients who want extracts covered must first complete a six-month course of an approved cannabis-based finished medicine. [9]
The Tüte
German consumption culture is firmly tobacco-mixed. The Tüte is a long rolling paper, a generous tobacco fraction and a rolled cardboard tip. Among the different types of rolling papers, longer formats suit this traditional rolling style. It shares its tobacco habit with Spain but not its format: longer, wider and built around cardboard rather than acetate. The contrast reflects the different rolling preferences described in Spain’s pre-roll market, where hash-forward spliffs and acetate filters are more prominent.
One law, sixteen markets
Germany’s federal structure means the same statute produces very different markets. States administer club licensing, and they move at very different speeds.
| Indicator | Figure | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| Approved clubs, nationwide | 413 (April 2026) | From 864 applications. Many are still in process. [10] |
| Lower Saxony | 1.06 clubs per 100,000 people | The highest density in the country. [10] |
| Bavaria | 0.07 clubs per 100,000 people | Nine clubs approved; three started growing and then stopped. [10] |
| North Rhine-Westphalia | 118 approved clubs | The most in absolute terms, from 219 applications. [10] |
| Member cap per club | 500 members | Hard ceiling on the size of every club. [11] |
By August 2026, industry tracking put the national total at around 455 approved clubs. [5]
Bavaria pushed for outright repeal of CanG and did not get it, but its licensing record shows what a hostile state can do with a permissive federal law. For a supplier, Germany is not one market. It is sixteen, each with its own pace.
What this means for producers
German pre-roll SKUs will be shaped by two forces that rarely appear together:
- Pharmacy-grade documentation. The medical channel runs on imported, pharmaceutical-standard product, and any future commercial channel will inherit those expectations.
- Very small batches. A club serves at most 500 members. Any future pilot will be municipal, not national. Production economics have to work at club scale, where understanding how pre-rolls are made and which steps can be handled efficiently in small runs becomes especially important.
That points to low-dose and herbal-blend formats mattering more here than 1.5g infused “hammers”. Smaller production volumes would also influence pre-roll machine ROI, since equipment costs and output need to make economic sense at limited scale. It also means a “German launch” will realistically be several state or city launches, each on its own schedule.
For producers planning around a future city-by-city rollout, format flexibility needs to justify its cost at limited volumes. Our AuraX automated pre roll machine supports adjustable fill weights and saved recipes for switching between SKUs. Request a demo to assess changeovers and whether the system fits your projected batch sizes before committing to production capacity.
Next in the series: Brazil’s pre-roll market, where seda, piteira and ice-o-lator meet a brand-new pharmaceutical framework.
Frequently asked questions
Can you buy pre-rolls legally in Germany?
Not in a shop. CanG legalized possession, home cultivation and non-profit clubs, but commercial retail pilots have not launched. Medical cannabis is available by prescription through pharmacies.
How many cannabis clubs are there in Germany?
A survey of all 16 states counted 413 approved cultivation associations in April 2026, from 864 applications. Industry tracking put the figure at around 455 by August 2026.
What is the MedCanG amendment?
A draft law adopted by the federal cabinet in October 2025 that would require in-person consultations for new cannabis prescriptions and ban mail-order delivery of flower. It had not passed the Bundestag as of September 2026.
Why is Germany importing so much medical cannabis?
Easier prescribing after April 2024, largely via telemedicine, drove demand far above domestic capacity. Imports reached about 201 tonnes in 2025, mostly from Canada and Portugal.
Sources
- Pharmazeutische Zeitung, “Cannabis-Anbauvereine vor allem im Norden” (April 2026). https://www.pharmazeutische-zeitung.de/cannabis-anbauvereine-vor-allem-im-norden-164415/
- Prohibition Partners, “Germany Adult-Use Cannabis Market Overview 2025”. https://prohibitionpartners.com/2025/10/14/germany-adult-use-cannabis-market-overview-2025/
- Sanity Group, statement on the Frankfurt and Hanover model projects. https://sanitygroup.com/en/home
- Sechat, “Germany surpasses 200 tons in import of medicinal cannabis” (2026), citing BfArM. https://sechat.com.br/en/noticia/germany-surpasses-200-tons-in-import-of-medicinal-cannabis
- Business of Cannabis, “Is Cannabis Legal in Germany in 2026?” (September 2026). https://businessofcannabis.com/is-cannabis-legal-in-germany-in-2026-the-law-the-market-and-what-it-means-for-operators/
- StratCann, “Canada continued to supply bulk of German medical cannabis imports in 2025”. https://stratcann.com/?p=47569
- Business of Cannabis, “Germany’s Medical Cannabis Bill Faces Critical Test” (January 2026). https://businessofcannabis.com/germanys-medical-cannabis-bill-faces-critical-test-as-experts-warn-of-unenforceable-framework/
- Medicanova, “Online cannabis prescriptions banned? Status 2026” (September 2026). https://medicanova.de/en/magazin/cannabis-rezept-online-verbot-novelle
- Cannabis Health News, “Germany Bans Flower from Reimbursement” (July 2026). https://cannabishealthnews.co.uk/2026/07/14/germany-bans-medical-cannabis-flower-from-reimbursement-and-mandates-six-month-trial-for-extracts/
- Nordkurier / RND survey, “Deutschlandweit mehr als 400 Cannabis-Anbauvereine” (April 2026). https://www.nordkurier.de/panorama/umfrage-deutschlandweit-mehr-als-400-cannabis-anbauvereine-4491450
- Sachsen Fernsehen, “29 Cannabis-Clubs gibt es jetzt in Sachsen” (July 2026). https://www.sachsen-fernsehen.de/amp/29-cannabis-clubs-gibt-es-jetzt-in-sachsen-2259018/
