The route to a prescription · Germany
Cannabis on prescription in Germany
Germany has the most open access of the three countries: any doctor may prescribe, a Betäubungsmittelrezept (narcotics prescription) is no longer required, and pharmacies carry flower, extracts and finished medicines. The catch is not access but money — and the draft law currently sitting in the health committee.
Since 30 July 2026 dried cannabis flower has been excluded from reimbursement by the statutory health insurers. Anyone who stays on it pays privately — even with an old, open-ended approval.
The steps
Put the history together
Which standard therapies have you tried, for how long, with what result? For a statutory benefit this is mandatory; for a private prescription it is what convinces your doctor. Two to four weeks of a symptom diary help more than any brochure.
Speak to a doctor — your GP included
Any doctor — except dentists and vets. There is no restriction to a medical specialty and no additional qualification.
There is no state register of doctors who prescribe cannabis. Anyone selling you a “verified list of doctors” is verifying nothing that the state verifies.
If your GP says no: ask for a referral to a pain clinic or to the specialist treating you. 41 practices that name the cannabis consultation on their own site and can be found again in the official doctor search are listed in our directory of practices.
The prescription
An ordinary prescription, not a Betäubungsmittelrezept (narcotics prescription) — since cannabis was taken out of the BtMG on 1 April 2024.
For people with statutory insurance but no approval, and for those paying themselves, it is a private prescription. One exception remains: nabilone (Canemes) is still prescribed on a Betäubungsmittelrezept.
In practice this means: patients paying themselves receive a private prescription, which they can fill at any pharmacy that stocks the preparation or orders it in. The prescription is yours — no one may tie it to a particular pharmacy.
The pharmacy
Through pharmacies — over the counter, by pharmacy courier and, for now, still by mail order.
311 German pharmacies with a cannabis range of their own have been checked against the official Versandhandels-Register (mail-order register): directory of pharmacies with a map. Collection in person, pharmacy courier and mail order are all possible at present.
Adjusting as you go
The first prescription is a therapeutic trial, not a permanent state. Dose, strain and form get adjusted; whether it works is answered by your diary, not by how you feel after three days. If it does not work after a fair titration, stopping is the right decision — not increasing the dose.
Telemedicine: what is at stake right now
Permitted, but politically contested: a draft law would require an initial in-person consultation and ban the mail-order dispatch of flower.
First Act amending the MedCanG, BT-Drs. 21/3061 of 3 December 2025 — first reading on 18 December 2025, public hearing on 14 January 2026, with the health committee ever since, without a second or third reading. It would change § 3 MedCanG (Abs. 2 in-person contact, Abs. 3 a dispatch ban for flower; pharmacy courier delivery would stay permitted). No transition period is foreseen — the act would enter into force the day after promulgation.
Our reading of the providers, and the warning signs by which a sales funnel can be recognised, are on Telemedicine.
And the money?
Flower: no. Extracts of standardised quality, dronabinol and nabilone: still possible where the conditions of § 31 Abs. 6 SGB V are met.
Changed by the GKV-Beitragssatzstabilisierungsgesetz, promulgated on 29 July 2026 (BGBl. 2026 I Nr. 228), in force since 30 July 2026. Approvals granted earlier are not grandfathered.
What that means in practice, which preparations are still reimbursable, and how an application or an objection is put together: Costs in Germany.
Further reading
The full guide to Germany · Driving as a patient · All the facts on Germany, with sources