Total Approved German Cultivation Associations Nears 300
The total number of approved adult-use cannabis cultivation associations in Germany continues to increase, with officials having approved nearly 300 applications so far. That total is up from a previously reported 234 approved applications as of mid-June 2025.
“One year after cannabis clubs were permitted, authorities have licensed 293 such associations, according to an investigation by the dpa news agency into the respective state authorities. The clubs are authorized to cultivate cannabis and distribute it to their members.” stated Zeit in its local reporting (translated from German to English).
“According to the German Press Agency (dpa), North Rhine-Westphalia leads the list with 83 approved cultivation associations, well ahead of Lower Saxony with 55.” the outlet also reported. “It is followed by Rhineland-Palatinate with 27 and Baden-Württemberg with 23 approved associations. Saarland is at the bottom of the list – no associations have been approved there yet. There are two approved associations in Bremen, three in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, six in Thuringia, and seven in Berlin.”
Starting on July 1st, 2024, adults in Germany can apply to launch a recreational cannabis cultivation association, sometimes referred to as ‘social clubs.’ The associations are member-based, and adults can join the associations and legally source their cannabis from them. It is worth noting that not all approved cultivation associations are operational, with many still in various stages of startup.
Cultivation associations are a key component of Germany’s legalization model. Whereas current European Union agreements still prohibit regulated national adult-use cannabis sales, such as what is occurring in Canada and Uruguay, EU agreements do permit cultivation associations. Malta’s legalization model also involves permitting cannabis cultivation associations.
One of the many ongoing German adult-use cannabis legalization evaluation projects being conducted is the Evaluation of the Consumer Cannabis Act (EKOCAN), led by project manager Dr. Jakob Manthey. Dr. Manthey recently announced some of EKOCAN’s preliminary findings, which included the determination that there aren’t enough cannabis cultivation associations in Germany.
The continued uptick in approved German adult-use cannabis cultivation association applications comes against continued calls by cannabis opponents in Germany to limit the use of medical cannabis telemedicine services.
A draft amendment to Germany’s Medical Cannabis Act (MedCanG) was recently released by Germany’s Ministry of Health and German Health Minister Nina Warken. The proposed changes contained within the draft amendment include:
- Mandatory in-person doctor consultations
- A ban on mail-order medical cannabis dispensing
- Stricter rules for medical cannabis prescriptions
German medical cannabis telemedicine services help the nation’s most vulnerable patients, including rural patients who live far away from doctors, disabled patients who often cannot travel to complete in-person consultations, and low income patients who may be able-bodied and yet cannot afford to travel to a physical doctors office or pay extra for a doctor to travel to them for in-person consultations.
All of those limitations would also apply to the ongoing logistics of acquiring medical cannabis products for the suffering patients who can overcome the arbitrary additional hurdles and gain initial approval from a doctor.
There is still time for medical cannabis advocates to prevent the drastic changes from gaining final approval, which was touched on by leading German cannabis policy expert attorney Peter Homberg of gunnercooke in a recent interview with krautinvest (I encourage everyone to read the interview on krautinvest.de in its entirety).
“I can’t imagine this draft bill being passed in its current form. In my view, it represents the Federal Ministry of Health’s maximum demands, which go far beyond the actual goal.” Peter Homberg said (translated from German to English) in the interview in response to krautinvest’s question, “In your opinion, how realistic is it that these changes will be implemented?”
Mr. Homberg would go on to explain that some changes to Germany’s medical cannabis rules and regulations will likely occur, but not everything that is being proposed in the recently released draft amendment.
“I can imagine that the SPD, as part of the coalition, will work quite hard to prevent this law from being implemented in this form. After all, its contents are counterproductive to what the government implemented during the last legislative period: comprehensive patient care with high-quality cannabis products from pharmacies.” Mr. Homberg also stated in the interview.
