Medical Marijuana Patients In Germany Benefit from 50% Price Reduction Thanks To Legalization, New Report

Medical marijuana company Bloomwell Group GmbH released a report Wednesday on Germany's private medical marijuana market. The Frankfurt-based company serves as the centralized digital infrastructure for medical cannabis distribution, consultations and treatment including via telemedicine and dispensing. The analysis comes after major cannabis reform in Germany with the implementation of the Cannabis Act (CanG).

When partial cannabis legalization took effect in Germany on April 1, it allowed adults over 18 to legally possess up to 25 grams of dried cannabis and cultivate up to three plants at home. One of the biggest breakthroughs under the law is that medical cannabis is essentially regulated like ibuprofen.

What else changed since then? Per the report, the price for medical marijuana flower initially rose slightly following its reclassification as a non-narcotic. However, costs quickly stabilized and then dropped in June. More importantly, patients are now paying an average of half the price for medical marijuana prescriptions, compared to what they paid at the beginning of 2023.

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"Through the Bloomwell platform, which is by far the largest of its kind in Europe, we have been able to gather and analyze a significant amount of data on medical cannabis prescriptions, patient preferences and the market as a whole," stated Niklas Kouparanis, CEO and co-founder of the Bloomwell Group. "In addition to accommodating price-sensitive patients with lower and more affordable prescription costs, our findings show that due to imports from more than 20 countries – the majority being from Canada – we have a steady cannabis supply to meet increased demand, and an immense variety of flower strains to meet the preferences of patients and physicians. However, as our market continues to grow, we'll need to continue to ramp up the amount of cannabis we import, as we're projecting that Germany will be the number one medical cannabis market in the world."

Key Takeaways

The report's findings are based on the Bloomwell Group's internal data and analysis of the tens of thousands of prescriptions dispensed via its medical cannabis platform from January 2023 through June 2024.

Highlights include:

• Patients are being provided with a greater variety of cannabis flower strains than ever before. In June 2024 alone, pharmacies dispensed a total of 237 different varieties of medical cannabis flower strains via the Bloomwell digital platform.
• Over 50% of the medical cannabis flower prescribed is classified as "inexpensive" or "very inexpensive." The average price per gram is less than 9 euros ($9.73). To put this in perspective, in the U.S. the average price per gram for medical marijuana flower is from $10 to $20, according to data from Nuggmd.
• Certain varieties of medical cannabis flowers, which previously cost €10 per gram at the beginning of 2023 are now priced at 5 euros per gram.
• Prescribed medical cannabis flower averages a potency of just over 20% THC.
• Patients and doctors have the option of choosing cannabis flowers that are either irradiated (treated to eliminate potential microbial contaminants) or non-irradiated flower; preferences indicate that a slight majority of patients prefer non-irradiated flower. Since the beginning of the year, the ratio of irradiated to non-irradiated flowers has been relatively equal.

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The report concludes that the industry has been well-prepared with a consistent marijuana supply to meet the substantial spike in new medical marijuana patients after April 1.

"It's extremely promising that medical cannabis is moving into the mainstream alongside other valued and reliable Rx prescriptions, and can now be prescribed more seamlessly for common issues such as sleep disorders and migraines,” said Bloomwell Group co-founder Dr. Julian Wichmann, MD. “Medical cannabis treatment for these ailments, which has been approved since 2017 and has shown to be helpful in relieving the symptoms stemming from these common conditions while often resulting in few or even zero side effects, should not be stigmatized. It's excellent news for patients and physicians alike that effective therapy with medical cannabis is now more widely available following reclassification to help people with various common conditions that affect millions."

Read Next:

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