Global Cannabis Industry 2026 Mid-Year Update: Telemedicine Reforms Stall as Oversupply Reshapes Europe

A mid-year review of 2026 predictions shows telemedicine restrictions in Germany and Australia remain stalled, Canadian oversupply has driven German flower prices down 46%, and Thailand is transitioning toward a strictly medical cannabis market. Meanwhile, Germany's flower supply faces new compliance and reimbursement pressures, and the UK's medical cannabis market continues rapid patient growth through a narrow prescriber base.

Key pieces of legislation in major global markets, including Germany, the UK, and Australia, remain unclarified, unpublished, or unenforced nine months into 2026, according to a Business of Cannabis mid-year update. Each could still transform its respective market by shaping or curbing the telemedicine prescribing phenomenon that drove growth throughout 2025.

In Germany, a draft bill proposing a ban on mail-order dispensing and mandatory in-person consultations for first prescriptions passed its first Bundestag reading on December 18, 2025, but has stalled since a January 2026 Health Committee hearing exposed splits in the ruling coalition. Analysts are divided on when, if ever, the final version will be enforced.

Instead of telemedicine restrictions, pushback against medical cannabis in Germany has taken another form. From July 30, cannabis flower no longer qualifies for statutory health insurance reimbursement, a change seen by some as a way to appease critics while broader restrictions remain static.

Australia's situation mirrors Germany's closely. The Therapeutic Goods Administration declined in August 2026 to set a concrete timeline for reform, indicating action is unlikely before 2027, even as enforcement against individual prescribers continues. The Health Practitioner Regulation Agency had already taken action against 57 practitioners by mid-2025.

Canadian oversupply has accelerated into Europe. Germany's pharmacy data shows average flower prices fell 46% to €4.52 a gram in the 14 months to March 2026, down from routine sales above €10 a gram in late 2023. BfArM's Q1 2026 import figure was revised upward by 33.7% to 67.6 tonnes, the largest single quarter on record.

Operators are restructuring around compressed margins. Cantourage Group launched Gramz in July, a proprietary flower brand it will buy outright rather than share margin on, moving away from revenue-sharing distribution deals.

Thailand is emerging as a legitimate medical supplier to Europe. The Ministry of Public Health is advancing a draft Cannabis and Hemp Act that would restrict the market to medical and research use. GACP-certified farms grew from a handful in 2024 to 149 by November 2025, and Germany's TONNEX is building a pharmaceutical supply chain from Thai producers into its EU-GMP Schwerin facility.

Germany's flower supply faces a second structural threat. On June 8, the Hessisches Landesamt für Gesundheit und Pflege published guidance challenging the compliance model underpinning much of the country's imported flower, arguing that drying is a critical manufacturing step requiring GMP compliance from harvest. If other states adopt the same reading, a meaningful share of Europe's imported flower supply could lose its compliance basis.

In the UK, NHS Business Services Authority data shows 1,701,064 items dispensed in English community pharmacies in 2025, up 154% year-on-year. That volume runs through a narrow pipeline, with pharmacist-independent prescribers issuing 61.9% of all CBPM items between January 2019 and May 2025, and the top eight clinics accounting for roughly 80% of all CBPM prescriptions.

The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs review, originally scheduled for release in summer 2026, is now overdue. Meanwhile, Patient Protect launched on March 9 as a UK-wide advocacy service covering employment, housing, policing, and driving discrimination for medical cannabis patients.