Germany: demand for medical cannabis soars

Demand for medical cannabis soars in Germany since its legalization in March 2017. January 2018, 13,000 patients were registered, compared with 1,100 at the start of the program, and latest figures published by Techniker Krankenkasse (TK), Germany's leading health insurer, counted 16,000 in February.

The authors of the TK report also point to the opacity of data feedback and the cost to the German health insurance system.

«We don't know which patient groups cannabis helps and at what dose, and in what form it should be administered to be most effective,» according to one of the study's authors, Gerd Glaseke, at the Weser Kurier.

TK manager Jen Baas explains: «Before a health insurance company pays for cannabis, any benefit of the medicine must be justified», implying that more research needs to be done on the therapeutic effects of cannabis.

Cannabis treatments are currently very expensive in Germany. The cannabis dispensed in pharmacies is imported from Canada and the Netherlands, and sold for around €25 a gram. A monthly course of dried flower treatment therefore costs between €300 and €2,200, reimbursed by the German social security system.

The application process for the German medical cannabis program is strict, however, and reimbursement is only granted if the patient's pathology justifies it. Around 1/3 of applications have been rejected since the program began.

This relative boom in demand for medical cannabis has accelerated the shortage of cannabis in pharmacies. Germany is in the process of structuring its national production of medical cannabis, with a few difficulties, and is entirely dependent on imports. A complex situation for German patients, and an opportunity for Canadian cannabis exporters.