Excessive occasions for German hashish agency amid medical growth

At an undisclosed web site in Germany’s Bavaria state, pharmaceutical CEO Philip Schetter opens a 75-centimeter (30-inch) thick metal door that secures his wares: huge quantities of hashish.

“Higher protected than sorry,” he says throughout a go to to the compound run by Cantourage, a producer and distributor of cannabis-based medicinal merchandise.

Marijuana has been partially legalized in Germany, however the agency fears its wares from so far as Jamaica, Uganda and New Zealand may make it a lovely goal for criminals.

“We’re dedicated to the best security requirements—for our staff in addition to for our merchandise,” Schetter instructed AFP.

Inside the power, workers sporting surgical robes, hairnets and face masks have been busy utilizing small scissors to chop up dried hashish flowers.

The brownish-green buds are used to alleviate continual ache and sleep issues, deal with sure types of epilepsy and provide help for most cancers, HIV and palliative care sufferers.

Medical hashish has been a boon for the Berlin-based firm whose web site slogan says “we love hashish” and whose Frankfurt Inventory Change ticker image is “HIGH”.

Final yr it booked income of 51.4 million euros, a 118% enhance on 2023.

The corporate with 70 workers says it permits producers to enter the European medical hashish market by processing and distributing their dried flowers and extracts.

Opponents embrace the Netherlands’ Bedrocan and Canada’s Aurora, which additionally grows hashish.

In Germany, the pungent inexperienced plant has been accessible with a prescription since 2017.

One advantage of laboratory-tested and authorized medical hashish is readability about its origin, processing path and lively ingredient content material, stated Schetter.

“If I went to the black market, the selection can be quite restricted and I’d be given something, with out realizing what it accommodates,” he stated. “And infrequently the product is contaminated. It’s possible you’ll even doubt that it’s hashish.”

‘Frosted Cookies’

Cantourage markets its medicines in eye-catching methods, naming them after their hashish strains.

Amongst its merchandise are “Frosted Cookies”, “Lemon Berry Sweet” and “Chemdawg”, full with colourful stickers that assist construct model loyalty even when they don’t seem on the packaging.

“Classical pharma companies do classical pharma advertising and marketing,” Schetter stated. “We’re simply younger and artistic,” he added, noting that the boundaries between leisure and medicinal medication are typically “blurred”.

“You possibly can argue about when a product is leisure and when it’s medicinal,” he stated. “Hashish helps within the remedy of sure signs.”

Most European nations have legalized medicinal hashish in some kind, however Germany has extra liberal guidelines than most.

The previous center-left authorities final yr made it simpler to get hashish on prescription. It additionally legalized possession of as much as 25 grams for private, non-medical use and allowed households to develop as much as three marijuana vegetation.

“The change within the legislation meant numerous individuals turned conscious for the primary time which you could get hashish from the chemist with out being gravely sick,” Schetter stated. “That led to a surge in demand.”

Pharmacies crammed over 1,000% extra hashish prescriptions in December 2024 than they did the earlier March, earlier than the legislation was loosened, in response to Bloomwell, a web-based platform that places sufferers in contact with medical doctors for hashish remedy.

‘Disgrace for nation’

The authorized change didn’t put everybody in excessive spirits, least of all Germany’s conservative new Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who through the election marketing campaign demanded the legalization be reversed.

His ally, Bavarian premier Markus Soeder, final yr charged that the loosening of the legislation was a “disgrace for the nation” and vowed his state would apply the legislation “as strictly as potential”.

Since Merz agreed to share energy with the center-left Social Democrats, his coalition authorities has taken a softer line, pledging solely an “open-ended analysis” of the problem.

Schetter stated he was relaxed concerning the pending evaluation, telling AFP that “we’re curious to see what comes out of this”.

He acknowledged that “regulatory threat does come up as a subject now and again” in his talks with buyers.

However even a reversal of the most recent change to the legislation ought to go away Cantourage’s enterprise mannequin intact, Schetter stated.

“We’re a pharmaceutical firm. We make medicines and ship them to chemists.”

He even dared to dream that the evaluation may go the opposite means, which means “additional steps might be taken to show partial legalization into full legalization”.

© 2025 AFP