EKOCAN Explained: What Germany's Cannabis Study Has Found So Far Germany is attempting to answer those questions through the Evaluation of the Consumer Cannabis Act project, known as EKOCAN – the government-mandated scientific evaluation of changes introduced under Germany's Cannabis Act. The refor…
EKOCAN Explained: What Germany's Cannabis Study Has Found So Far
Germany is attempting to answer those questions through the Evaluation of the Consumer Cannabis Act project, known as EKOCAN – the government-mandated scientific evaluation of changes introduced under Germany's Cannabis Act. The reforms, which came into force in April 2024, changed the rules around both medical and non-medical cannabis.
EKOCAN is focused mainly on the non-medical reforms, but its findings have also become part of the debate over Germany's growing medical cannabis market and how it should be regulated.
The non-medical KCanG reforms allowed adults to possess up to 25g in public, grow up to three plants at home and, from July 2024, obtain cannabis through non-commercial cultivation associations. EKOCAN therefore focuses on those changes rather than whether cannabis works as a medical treatment.
It noted that a clear empirical separation between medical and recreational users is 'not feasible' and that medical prescriptions increasingly serve as an alternative legal access route for consumers who might otherwise use illicit channels.
The main finding so far is that cannabis use has not risen sharply since the reforms, while more people are getting it through legal routes. The first EKOCAN report found no surge in cannabis use, while use among young people was falling and there were early signs of a move away from the black market toward legal sources.
EKOCAN Explained: What Germany's Cannabis Study Has Found So Far
The second report found that more people were growing cannabis at home or getting it on prescription – but most still got hold of it from other people while very few used cannabis clubs. Researchers also looked more closely at whether people were consuming more cannabis since the reforms. One way they did this was by testing wastewater in 15 German cities for traces left behind after the body processes THC. Across 3,239 measurements taken before and after the reforms, researchers found "no significant short-term effect on consumption" linked to the change in the law, as Business of Cannabis reported. Cannabis use among adults had risen slightly, but researchers said this continued a trend that had already begun before the reforms. The increase was "consistent with the pre-existing trend", with "no evidence of a post-legalisation surge".
Where are people getting cannabis? EKOCAN has found that more people are growing cannabis themselves, but informal sharing between people remains the most common source. In the first half of 2024, 5.4% of surveyed consumers said home growing was their main source. By the second half of 2025, that had risen to 21.4%, according to Cannabis Health's analysis of the second EKOCAN report. But 35.2% still said their main source was informal sharing with other people. Cannabis clubs have played a much smaller role. Just 366 cultivation associations had been approved by October 2025, covering fewer than half of Germany's counties. They accounted for less than 0.1% of estimated cannabis demand.
That matters because the reforms were intended, in part, to move consumers away from the black market. The government had also proposed a second stage of the reforms involving pilot schemes where cannabis could be sold through regulated commercial outlets. Business of Cannabis reported in October that EKOCAN researchers wanted those pilots to go ahead, arguing that Germany needed another legal source of cannabis before researchers could properly assess its effect on the black market.
So far, EKOCAN has not found an increase in cannabis use among young people following the reforms. As Cannabis Health reported in February, cannabis use among young people had already been falling since 2019, and that decline appears to have continued after the law changed. Professor Daniel Kotz, one of the researchers involved in EKOCAN, said the available evidence showed that the "declining trend" in the proportion of young people using cannabis had continued after partial legalisation. The second report reached a similar conclusion, as reported in Cannabis Health's analysis of the findings, that use among young people had remained stable or declined slightly. Their perception of the risks associated with cannabis had also remained broadly stable, with some evidence that young people were more likely to see cannabis as risky after the reforms.
EKOCAN Explained: What Germany's Cannabis Study Has Found So Far
However, EKOCAN identified a different concern around early support for young people. The reforms reduced one of the routes through which young people using cannabis were referred to support services. EKOCAN said programmes intended to intervene early had "failed to meet the legislature's expectations" in closing the gap created by decriminalisation and recommended better coordination between services.
Why is there disagreement over the findings? EKOCAN's interim findings have become part of a wider political debate over the future of Germany's cannabis reforms. SPD and Green politicians argued that the findings supported continuing the reforms, pointing to evidence that cannabis use among young people had not increased since the law changed.
Germany's Federal Health Ministry, Interior Ministry and Family Ministry, together with the Federal Drug Commissioner, said the findings showed an "urgent need for action". In particular, they called for better ways of getting young cannabis users into early support, tighter controls around online access to medical cannabis and stronger action against organised crime.
EKOCAN Explained: What Germany's Cannabis Study Has Found So Far
They described the second report as important but "preliminary" and warned that it did not yet provide a robust basis for a final assessment of Germany's cannabis policy. Medical cannabis is not the main subject of EKOCAN. The evaluation concerns the KCanG, which covers cannabis for non-medical use. However, the second interim report devotes part of its analysis to Germany's medical market because the two have become increasingly difficult to separate.
But researchers could not determine how much of that cannabis was actually being used to treat a medical condition. The report also examined online medical cannabis platforms. A legal assessment commissioned for EKOCAN found that platforms were "systematically violating" Germany's pharmaceutical advertising rules. Section 10 of the Heilmittelwerbegesetz prohibits prescription medicines from being advertised to the general public.
EKOCAN therefore recommended that lawmakers consider "capping the THC content of freely prescribable cannabis flowers". Why does EKOCAN matter for prescribing? EKOCAN does not tell clinicians whether they should prescribe medical cannabis to an individual patient. Its importance for prescribing comes from what it tells policymakers about the wider medical market.
Germany's medical cannabis market has expanded rapidly since April 2024, alongside the growth of telemedicine and online prescribing. Imports nearly tripled in 2025, reaching more than 200 tonnes. That growth is now at the centre of a separate debate over proposed changes to Germany's Medical Cannabis Act, or MedCanG.
The government has linked the proposals to the sharp increase in imports. Medical cannabis imports rose by more than 400% year-on-year in the first half of 2025, while prescriptions covered by statutory health insurance rose much more slowly. The government argues that the gap suggests some self-paying consumers are using online prescription services to obtain cannabis for non-medical purposes.
EKOCAN will continue to collect and analyse evidence for two more years.
EKOCAN Explained: What Germany's Cannabis Study Has Found So Far
Germany is meanwhile continuing to debate changes to both its medical and non-medical cannabis systems.
The programme includes "Evidence or Ideology? Making Cannabis Policy Without Data", a panel featuring Professor Bernd Werse, Director of the Institute for Addiction Research at Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences; Sita Schubert, General Secretary of the European Medicinal Cannabis Association; and Dr Artur Schrörs, former head of Frankfurt's Drugs Department.
