Germany
What may be prescribed
Dried flower, extracts of standardised quality, dronabinol, nabilone and the finished medicines Sativex, Canemes and Epidyolex.
Europe · 31 countries
Medical cannabis in Europe: what applies where you are, and how to get access
Written for anyone in Europe who is trying to work out, in English, whether medical cannabis is a real option where they live, work or travel — and if so, what the actual way in is. Every country of the EU plus the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Norway and Iceland is answered with the same questions from the same kind of sources: the law, the regulator, the official statistic, each with the date we read it. Pick your country below; where a country has its own edition and a verified directory, the page takes you there.
The differences are large enough to change what a patient should do. Germany dispenses flower on a routine prescription and stopped reimbursing it in July 2026; Belgium bans pharmacies from dispensing any THC preparation at all; Denmark made its scheme permanent in January 2026 and lets the pharmacy make the product; France closed its experiment to new patients in March 2024 and has not yet opened the permanent framework; Spain started a hospital-only route in October 2025; Sweden and Norway grant access one patient at a time. Countries are grouped below by how access actually works, not by whether a law exists.
AOpen prescription market
A doctor writes a routine prescription, a pharmacy dispenses flower or extracts, and a private, self-pay provider layer exists. This is where a directory is worth building.
GermanyGerman edition
Flower, extracts and finished medicines can all be prescribed — but since 30 July 2026 most patients have had to pay for them themselves.
United Kingdomown edition
Medical cannabis is legal in the UK but almost never available on the NHS: fewer than five people have ever received an NHS prescription for an unlicensed cannabis product since the law changed in 2018, so in practice access means paying privately.
Polandown edition
Medical cannabis is legal in Poland as a pharmacy-compounded preparation on an Rpw prescription that any doctor may write, but since 7 November 2024 the doctor must examine you in person, and you pay the entire cost yourself.
BControlled national programme
Cannabis is a distinct medical category embedded in the public system: authorised prescribers or products, pharmacy preparation, often reimbursement. A new patient can start today, but through the health system rather than a clinic market.
Czechiaown edition
Medical cannabis in Czechia is a real, insurance-funded prescription treatment: since 1 April 2025 an ordinary GP can prescribe it for chronic intractable pain, public insurance pays 90% of the price for up to 30 g a month, and it is dispensed as a pharmacy-made magistral preparation on an electronic prescription flagged "vysoce návyková látka".
SwitzerlandGerman edition
Since 1 August 2022 no exceptional licence from the Federal Office of Public Health (BAG) is needed — the doctor prescribes directly. Almost everything is paid for by the patient.
Denmark
Since 1 January 2026 Denmark has a permanent medical cannabis scheme: any Danish doctor may (but is not obliged to) prescribe listed cannabis products, which a pharmacy prepares for the individual patient.
Italy
In Italy any licensed doctor may prescribe a pharmacy-compounded cannabis preparation (flower for decoction/vaporiser, or oil) on a non-repeatable prescription; supply comes from the state military pharmaceutical plant in Florence plus state-authorised imports, and whether the regional health service pays depends on your region.
Luxembourg
Luxembourg runs a closed state programme since August 2018: a doctor trained and certified by the Direction de la santé prescribes dried flower, oil extracts, Sativex or Epidyolex for three indication groups, and one of four hospital pharmacies hands it over free of charge — but only to people who live in Luxembourg and are insured here.
Malta
Any registered doctor in Malta may prescribe one of the 38 Medicines Authority-approved cannabis products (mostly dried flower and oils) once the patient holds a control card issued by the Superintendent of Public Health on the doctor's request; a licensed pharmacy then dispenses it on a special narcotic prescription.
Netherlands
Any doctor in the Netherlands may prescribe medicinal cannabis; pharmacies dispense five standardised flower varieties supplied by the state Bureau voor Medicinale Cannabis, and a few pharmacies prepare oil from them.
CProduct-, indication- or hospital-gated
Access exists, but only through authorised products, a fixed list of indications, a last-line rule or a hospital pathway. Real for some patients, closed for most.
Sloveniaown edition
Since 20 August 2025 any licensed doctor in Slovenia may prescribe medical cannabis for any indication on an ordinary non-renewable prescription — but what a pharmacy can actually dispense is a short list of compounded THC/CBD oral solutions, and no licensed Slovenian cannabis flower exists.
Croatia
Since October 2015 a Croatian family doctor may prescribe THC-containing medicines and pharmacy-made cannabis preparations, but only for four listed conditions (multiple sclerosis, cancer, epilepsy, AIDS) and only on the written recommendation of a neurologist, oncologist, infectious-disease specialist or paediatric neurologist.
Cyprus
Cyprus has had a medical-cannabis framework since March 2019 — dried cannabis and pharmacy-made preparations from up to three state-licensed producers, dispensed by pharmacies on a doctor's prescription — but no official page reachable in this session confirms that a licensed product is actually on sale or how a new patient obtains one today.
France
A new patient cannot start medical cannabis in France today: enrolment in the state experiment closed on 27 March 2024, and the permanent framework (five-year ANSM authorisations for cannabis-based medicines) still needs a decree and a HAS opinion before anything reaches pharmacies.
Greece
Greek pharmacies can dispense EOF-approved 'final pharmaceutical cannabis products' — currently 26 dried-flower and oil items from two Greek producers with official maximum prices — but only on prescription, only as a last resort in a fixed list of adult indications, and always at the patient's own expense.
Ireland
A new patient in Ireland can only be prescribed cannabis by a hospital consultant, for one of three listed conditions after standard treatments have failed, from a short list of accepted products under the Medical Cannabis Access Programme (MCAP); anything outside that needs an individual Ministerial licence.
Portugal
In Portugal any doctor may prescribe a cannabis preparation that holds an Infarmed marketing authorisation (ACM), but only after conventional treatments have failed or caused serious side effects and only for the seven indications on Infarmed's list; pharmacies dispense it under narcotics rules.
Spain
Since Real Decreto 903/2025 (in force 10 October 2025) a hospital specialist may prescribe a standardised cannabis extract as an oral solution, made and dispensed only by a hospital pharmacy, when authorised medicines have failed; there is no community-pharmacy or flower route.
DNamed-patient or exceptional access
Every patient needs an individual permit or licence from the regulator. Possible, slow, exceptional.
Estonia
Estonia has no medical cannabis programme: a doctor can request a cannabis or cannabinoid medicine for one named patient through the regulator's unauthorised-medicine procedure, and Ravimiamet decides case by case.
Finland
A new patient in Finland can only get cannabis flower or extracts through a patient-specific 'erityislupa' (special permit) that Fimea grants case by case for one year at most, after a doctor writes the prescription and a pharmacy applies; Fimea publishes no cannabis programme, product list or prescriber list.
Hungary
Hungary has no medical cannabis programme: a new patient cannot walk into a pharmacy with a cannabis prescription today. The only route to a THC-containing medicine is a doctor-initiated individual request to the NNGYK for a product not authorised in Hungary; the CBD medicine Epidyolex is EU-authorised and is not a narcotic.
Norway
A new patient cannot simply be prescribed cannabis flower in Norway: apart from the approved spray Sativex, every cannabis product needs an individual 'godkjenningsfritak' (exemption from marketing authorisation) applied for by the doctor, and products with more than 1 % THC may only be applied for by specialists working in hospitals.
Sweden
A new patient cannot obtain cannabis flower or extracts in Sweden on an ordinary prescription: apart from the approved medicines Sativex and Epidyolex, a doctor must justify a 'licens' (special permit) that a pharmacy applies for at Läkemedelsverket for that named patient.
ECannabinoid medicines only
Only finished cannabinoid medicines — Sativex, Epidyolex, dronabinol, nabilone — are available; there is no cannabis programme and no flower.
AustriaGerman edition
Cannabis flower may not be prescribed in Austria. What is possible is dronabinol as a magistral (pharmacy-compounded) preparation and three approved finished medicines.
Belgium
Belgium has no medical cannabis programme: pharmacies may dispense only Sativex and pharmacy-made CBD preparations (max 0.1 % THC); every other form — flower, THC oils — is banned by the Royal Decree of 11 June 2015, even with a prescription.
Bulgaria
Bulgaria has no medical cannabis: plants and substances on Списък I of the narcotics law are 'banned for use in human and veterinary medicine', so no doctor can prescribe cannabis flower or extract today; the only cannabinoid medicine lawfully available is the EU-authorised CBD product Epidyolex.
Iceland
Iceland has no medical cannabis programme: the regulator states plainly that medical marijuana is not legal in Iceland, and the only cannabis-derived medicines a doctor can prescribe are the authorised products Sativex (THC/CBD spray) and Epidyolex (CBD solution).
Latvia
Latvia has no medical cannabis pathway: cannabis, its resin, extracts and tinctures are on the prohibited List I, so a new patient cannot be prescribed cannabis flower or extracts; only industrially made cannabinoid medicines with a marketing authorisation (such as centrally authorised Epidyolex) can in principle be prescribed.
Lithuania
Since 1 May 2019 Lithuania allows cannabis (a List I substance) only as an ingredient of a registered medicinal product; there is no programme for cannabis flower or extracts, so a new patient can only be prescribed an authorised cannabinoid medicine on a special narcotic prescription.
Romania
Romania has no medical cannabis programme and no Romanian-marketed cannabis flower or extract; a new patient cannot start today. In principle a medicine containing a controlled substance is not treated as a 'drug' when used in medical practice, and the CBD medicine Epidyolex is EU-authorised, but no THC product with a Romanian marketing authorisation could be confirmed.
Slovakia
Slovakia has no medical cannabis pathway: Group I substances may be handled only for research, teaching and expert purposes, so cannabis flower or extracts cannot be prescribed or dispensed; only a finished cannabinoid medicine with a marketing authorisation can in principle be prescribed.
If you are not from here: the two European rules
Directive 2011/24/EU makes a prescription from one Member State dispensable in another — but only for medicines authorised in the dispensing country, and Article 11(6) takes “medicinal products subject to special medical prescription” out of the rule entirely. Narcotic prescriptions are exactly that, and a magistral cannabis preparation is not an authorised medicine in the first place. In practice a cannabis prescription does not cross a border anywhere in Europe; the country pages say where that has been confirmed by the national rule and where it merely follows from the Directive. For your own medicine, Article 75 of the Schengen Convention lets a Schengen resident carry a certified supply for up to 30 days; the United Kingdom, Ireland and Cyprus have their own import rules. Every country page answers this under “As a visitor or new resident”.
The seven countries with an edition, side by side
Pick the question; every answer is a claim with its source on the country page behind it.
United Kingdom
What may be prescribed
Three cannabis medicines hold a UK marketing authorisation: Sativex (nabiximols) oromucosal spray, Epidyolex (cannabidiol) oral solution and Nabilone capsules. Everything else a patient is likely to be prescribed — dried flower, oils, capsules, pastilles — is an unlicensed "special", not a licensed medicine.
Poland
What may be prescribed
Dried cannabis flower and standardised extracts are legal, but not as finished medicines: they are pharmaceutical raw materials that a pharmacy compounds into an individual preparation for you. On 6 September 2026 the state register listed 68 cannabis raw materials — 56 dried-flower products and 12 extracts — of which 62 still had a marketing authorisation in date, from 22 authorisation holders, with THC declared from under 1% up to 30%.
Czechia
What may be prescribed
Only pharmacy-made magistral preparations (IPLP) from dried Cannabis sativa flower or a cannabis extract — there is no branded medical-cannabis product to ask for. The doctor writes a percentage of THC and CBD, not a strain name.
Austria
What may be prescribed
Isolated delta-9-THC (dronabinol) with a purity above 95 % as a magistral preparation, plus Sativex, Canemes and Epidyolex. Flower and cannabis preparations are excluded.
Switzerland
What may be prescribed
Magistralrezepturen — pharmacy-compounded preparations (full extracts, oils, and in some cantons flower as well) — plus the two approved medicines Sativex and Epidyolex.
Slovenia
What may be prescribed
Cannabis for medical purposes may be prescribed as an authorised medicine, a magistral (pharmacy-compounded) medicine or a galenic medicine. In practice the national medicines database lists only a handful of compounded THC/CBD and CBD oral solutions plus one authorised product, Epidyolex; there is no cannabis flower product on it at all.
Every cell is backed on the country page itself by the norm, the register and the date we read it. Where no official figure exists, the page says so — estimates are labelled as estimates and attributed to whoever produced them, not sold as facts.
Where a verified directory can be built, and where it cannot
The site's method is to publish only what an official register or two independent sources will carry. That method has a consequence people usually discover too late: registers are wildly uneven across Europe, so the same product cannot be built in every country.
Czechia is the clearest case in our favour. SÚKL, the state medicines agency, publishes a list of doctors who prescribe medical cannabis — a level of verification that simply does not exist in Germany. Slovenia is the clearest case against: since any doctor may prescribe for any indication, a list of prescribing doctors cannot exist at all. Both answers are published as pages, because the second one is as useful to a patient as the first.
| Country | Doctors | Pharmacies | Products | Telemedicine |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Germany | Published | Published | Published | Published |
| United Kingdom | No list — by design | Published | Published | Published |
| Poland | No list — by design | No list — by design | Published | Published |
| Czechia | Published | Register exists, not built | Published | No list — by design |
| Austria | No list — by design | No list — by design | Published | No list — by design |
| Switzerland | No list — by design | Published | Published | No list — by design |
| Slovenia | Register exists, not built | No list — by design | Published | No list — by design |