Online Cannabis Sales Are Booming in Germany—and the Government Is Racing to Catch Up

Doctors all over Europe are writing prescriptions for mail-order marijuana. A few years ago, Lukas, a 20-year-old who lives outside Berlin, would have had to wander through a park at night or arrange an illicit street pickup if he wanted to buy marijuana. Now, all he needs is five minutes and an internet connection. Since Germany liberalized its cannabis laws two years ago, online telemedicine platforms with suggestive names like Cannadoc24 and Weed.de have become the preferred way for buyers—technically, patients—to access both pharmacist-vetted weed and doctors’ notes to order it legally.

Cannabis is Germany’s new multi-billion-euro industry. Imports of medical cannabis skyrocketed to an estimated 192 tons in 2025—up from 32 tons in 2023, the last full year before the reform. Sales within the country jumped from nearly €1 billion in 2024 to roughly €2 billion in 2025, according to BPC, a business association of pharmaceutical cannabinoid companies. Online pharmacies are at the heart of this fast-growing business, presenting customers with marijuana menus worthy of Amsterdam.

But the ease with which pot smokers can now acquire their supplies has prompted concern about possible abuse. That, in turn, has set the stage for a showdown between officials like Health Minister Nina Warken, who view the system as urgently in need of tighter restrictions, and the cannabis industry, which has no interest in seeing runaway revenue suddenly vanish. Warken, a Christian Democrat, introduced legislation last October that would require in-person doctors’ visits to obtain a marijuana prescription, and limit fulfillment to brick-and-mortar pharmacies.

The industry quickly stepped in to lobby against it, arguing that this would harm patients and force many to resort to illegal alternatives. “If this law were to be enacted in its current form, the cannabis industry would collapse by half,” said David Henn, chief executive officer of Cannamedical Pharma GmbH, a Cologne-based cannabis wholesaler. Some lawmakers also express concern that the measures could disadvantage genuinely ill patients in rural areas, where doctors can be harder to find.

“Telemedicine is a natural part of modern healthcare,” said Matthias Mieves, head of cannabis legislation for the Social Democrats, whose votes are needed to pass the proposal. “Not every small village has the infrastructure needed.” Members of the governing coalition of Christian Democrats and Social Democrats will continue talks to reach a compromise after they return from break at the end of February.

When Germany decriminalized cannabis consumption in 2024, the goal was to combat the black market. Under the new rules, users are allowed to either grow small amounts of their own plants or join membership-based clubs with permission to grow. The latter failed to gain traction, and the federal agency that grants licenses for experimental marijuana shops has yet to approve any. A separate piece of legislation, however, proved far more successful at expanding access. It removed cannabis from a list of banned narcotics, clearing the way for doctors to prescribe it more easily.

Before long, dozens of digital platforms like Weed.de, Bloomwell and DrAnsay were doing brisk business, complemented by online pharmacies like HiGreen. Many simply require customers to fill out short online questionnaires about their medical needs—Lukas said he was seeking treatment for a “sleep disorder”—which are then sent for remote review to doctors anywhere in the EU, and sometimes as far away as Malta or Croatia. Once the prescription is written, patients are able to access an online marketplace where hundreds of pharmacies offer cannabis flowers starting at just over €3 per gram. “Within five minutes, I could order 100 grams to be delivered to my home,” said Lukas, who admits he has no trouble sleeping. “I would say it’s a good thing because you get better weed that’s much purer” compared to what’s typically available on the black market.

Many consumers likely share his way of thinking. While overall cannabis prescriptions have soared, orders paid for by Germany’s universal public health insurance system—which covers about 90% of the population—rose by just 9% in 2024. Since German law permits public insurers to pay for cannabis only as a last resort in cases of serious illnesses, the fact that the vast majority of people pay out of pocket has generated some suspicion. “I think this is mainly leisure use disguised as medical therapy,” Mathias Luderer, an addiction expert at the University of Frankfurt, said at a parliamentary hearing in January.

Another red flag is the fact that cannabis portals advertise their prices. Because public insurance normally covers the costs of doctor visits and medicine, patients in Germany don’t know, or need to know, the specifics of pricing. Online platforms, by contrast, put cost front-and-center. On its website, DrAnsay offers cannabis prescriptions starting at €14.20. In January, CannaDoc24 touted a limited offer of a free first prescription, with a follow-up costing €9.95.

Such offers test the limits of the law in Germany, where there’s a longstanding ban on advertising medical treatments that require prescriptions. And some platforms have gone even further. Several offered cannabis discounts on Halloween and Christmas, and one hired a popular German rapper to be the face of its marketing campaign.

The Apothekenkammer Nordrhein, a regulatory body that oversees pharmacies in the Cologne and Düsseldorf area, has started taking legal action against these campaigns. In January, it notched a victory when a Hamburg court agreed to issue an injunction banning Zazaxpress, an online cannabis platform, from offering prescriptions without in-person consultations. The judges also told the company to stop promising that its products would be available though a popular food delivery service. Zazaxpress didn’t reply to a request to comment.

Weed.de, DrAnsay and Bloomwell said their platforms comply with German law and that prescriptions for medical cannabis are only available after individual physician assessments. DrAnsay said its doctors are registered in Germany, while Bloomwell and Weed.de said that their physicians, who are based across the EU, act independently in accordance with professional regulations. All three say that there is no evidence that their platforms are facilitating large-scale recreational use. They also say that blaming telemedicine for misuse ignores issues like doctor shortages and the fact that there are no legal cannabis retail shops. Cannadoc24 didn’t reply to a request for comment.

With legal cannabis less than two years old in Germany, Ingo Schmidt, an analyst at research firm Montega AG, sees these developments as part of a “‘coming of age’ for the industry” which will result in “a shakeout in terms of quality.” He predicts that while smaller, more volume-oriented services may fail, “established players with a strong pharmaceutical base and stable supply chains will consolidate their market leadership.”

In the meantime, a small group of pharmacies are racing to take advantage of the boom while they can. At Frankfurt-based Kissel Apotheke, medical cannabis now generates about 80% of revenue, according to owner Malte Uhlendorf, who has had to move offices twice to accommodate the surge in demand. His team has grown from four to about 60 people and now operates out of a 900-square-meter commercial unit on the outskirts of Frankfurt. Inside the former office space, workers in their early thirties weigh and pack cannabis for shipping, moving to pop music thumping from speakers. Many of them say they prefer working in a cannabis mail-order pharmacy over traditional ones because of the relaxed atmosphere and younger colleagues.

Despite uncertainty over the outcome of the legislative debate, Uhlendorf has recently signed a lease for a fourth pharmacy that could serve both as a mail-order facility as well as a walk-in pickup location. He’s also weighing his options should a mail-order ban take effect. “Standing still isn’t an option,” Uhlendorf said. “You have to keep moving, even when you don’t know what’s coming.”