Autumn 2025 Could Be Pivotal For German Cannabis
As the summer months of 2025 are coming to an end and the autumn season approaches, the eyes of the international cannabis community will continue to be fixed on Germany, where policymakers, regulators, and researchers are expected to make some major announcements that could prove to be pivotal for the future of Germany’s industry.
The first interim report from the ongoing EKOCAN evaluation of Germany’s Consumer Cannabis Act (KCanG) is scheduled for release on October 1, 2025. The evaluation will consider, among other things:
- Consumption rates and behaviors of various age groups
- Cannabis use prevention among youth
- Impact on public health outcomes, including mental health
- Public roadway safety
- Impacts on criminal activity
- Impacts on Germany’s court system
“To this end, a wide variety of data will be compiled (e.g., from ongoing studies on the topic or from public administration), our own surveys will be conducted (e.g., with public organizations directly involved in the topic, as well as consumers and cultivation associations), and the data will finally be evaluated with regard to the aforementioned overarching objectives.” states the Federal Ministry of Health (BMG) on its website (translated from German to English).
“The evaluation will make an important contribution to answering the question of how the law is being implemented in everyday life and whether the intended effects of the law are being achieved. Furthermore, the evaluation should provide reliable evidence for potentially necessary legislative adjustments.” BMG also states.
Some initial findings from the EKOCAN project and its project manager, Dr. Jakob Manthey, have already surfaced via original reporting by krautinvest. One of the major takeaways from the initial findings is that reported cannabis consumption rates were already on the rise in Germany leading up to the enactment of the CanG law, and Dr. Manthy determined that the rise was due to older individuals reporting cannabis use.
Regarding younger consumers, which is a demographic often focused on by cannabis opponents in their talking points, Dr. Manthy “sees no anomalies since the Cannabis Act came into force,” according to krautinvest’s reporting, and that Dr. Manthy doesn’t assume “that any changes can be attributed to the Cannabis Act.”
Other high-level takeaways from the initial evaluation findings are that there aren’t enough cannabis cultivation associations in Germany, that there are no “short-term changes” regarding public roadway safety, legalization has not increased reported mental illnesses, and that the CanG law has significantly lowered cannabis-related criminal offenses in Germany. It will be interesting to see if those initial findings are included in the upcoming interim report in October.
Another major item that members of the cannabis community inside and outside of Germany need to have on their radars relates to decisions on pending applications for regional adult-use cannabis commerce pilot projects. The pending applications and looming decisions were touched on in the German Cannabis Business Association’s (BvCW) recent newsletter.
“To date, 58 applications for research projects have been submitted under Section 2 (4) of the KCanG, 32 of which are so-called model projects. The first decisions on applications by the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food are expected in the third quarter of 2025.” BvCW wrote in its newsletter this week (translated from German to English).
Regional adult-use cannabis commerce pilot trials are part of the second phase of Germany’s legalization model, and were initially expected to launch by the end of 2024. However, German pilot launches have experienced a series of delays.
Hopefully the delays have run their course, and approvals will be announced soon. Adult-use pilot trials are already operating in the Netherlands and Switzerland, with no major issues being reported.
