European Union

With cannabis reforms gaining traction around the world, most predict Germany to be the next major legalization victory — the question is will that happen in 2023, or beyond?

Coming off the heels of a very big year for cannabis, what does 2023 have in store for the emerging international industry?

Ireland is the latest EU country to consider adult-use cannabis reforms following the introduction of a legalization proposal by People Before Profit MP Gino Kenny.

Germany this week announced its plans for adult-use cannabis legalization including possession limitations and home grow provisions.

In less than a decade, the cannabis industry has gone from seeing a worldwide blanket prohibition of the plant to today, where new and exciting cannabis opportunities can be found across the globe.

Officials from Luxemburg, Germany, The Netherlands, and Malta met recently to discuss EU adult-use cannabis reforms with an eye to quashing the illicit marketplace.

Spanish pharmacies will begin to sell medical cannabis as early as this fall following the approval of Spain’s Congress of Deputies and the Health Commission.

Materia Malta, a leading medical cannabis distributor in Europe, has shipped Malta’s first international cannabis export to Germany.

Germany started holding expert hearings this week related to its cannabis legalization plan, which lawmakers expect to finalize by the end of the year.

Germany’s Health Minister Karl Lauterbach said he will begin preparations for setting up an adult-use cannabis market in the country.

A recent poll found that 55% of Europeans back the broad legalization of adult-use cannabis, with the majority of supporters also in favor of regulated retail sales and home cultivation.

The Constitutional Council of France ruled that CBD is not addictive or harmful, overturning a ban on the possession, use, and sale of CBD put in place in December.

Ireland has seen a nearly 50% drop in cannabis possession charges and summonses following recent criminal justice reforms.

Malta President George Vella signed the country’s national cannabis legalization bill into law in the face of opposition from Malta’s conservative party and more than 50 religious organizations.

Lawmakers in Malta have approved the country’s cannabis legalization proposal, making it the first EU member nation to legalize adult-use cannabis.

A cannabis legalization bill in Malta is expected to be formally approved by lawmakers today.

The European Industrial Hemp Association restored the maximum THC levels for hemp from 0.2% to 0.3% after previously reducing the level last year.

Germany’s incoming coalition government is set to legalize adult-use cannabis nationwide and license dispensaries to conduct regulated sales.

Cannabis legalization in Germany could be worth around 3.4 billion euros in tax revenues and about 1.3 billion euros in cost savings.

Greek lawmakers approved a measure last week to legalize the cultivation and sale of medical cannabis products.

The Health Commission of Switzerland’s National Council voted 13-11 last week in favor of federally legalizing cannabis for all adults.

Amsterdam’s Mayor Femke Halsema has officially introduced her plan to ban cannabis sales to tourists and foreigners in the city.

Starting next year — after the final transition period of Brexit — medical cannabis patients in the UK will no longer be able to source their medicine from The Netherlands or other EU countries.

Irish medical cannabis patients no longer have to travel to The Netherlands to purchase their medicine after officials made permanent a pandemic-response service that lets patients order medical cannabis products from Dutch cannabis firms.