Part of Germany’s adult-use legalization model involves permitting noncommercial social cannabis clubs. The clubs have to adhere to various rules, including limiting membership to a maximum of 500 members, and restricting sales to 50 grams per member a month (30 grams for members 18-20 years old). Clubs will also be permitted to sell cannabis clones and seeds.
“According to the Ministry of Health, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia wants to authorize up to 3,000 cannabis cultivation associations and hand over the approval process to the district governments.” states NW News in its original domestic reporting (translated from German to English).
“We assume that, if we calculate that one cultivation association is possible per 6,000 inhabitants, a maximum of 3,000 cultivation associations will exist in North Rhine-Westphalia in the future,” State Secretary Matthias Heidmeier stated according to NW News’ reporting. North Rhine-Westphalia has a total population of roughly 18 million people.
In a nationwide online survey conducted in May 2024 by Pronova BKK involving 1,000 people in Germany aged 18 and over, 10% of survey respondents reported consuming cannabis ‘regularly.’ Over a quarter of respondents reported using cannabis ‘occasionally.’
“More than a quarter of Germans consume cannabis occasionally, including more than half of Generation Z.” stated Pronova BKK (translated from German to English). “Interest in cannabis is low among non-users of all ages, but almost one in ten non-users is considering growing it at home.”
Among reported ‘regular’ cannabis consumers, 51% plan to cultivate cannabis at home and 44% plan to join a cannabis social club once they are permitted to launch in July 2024. Interest in joining a cannabis social club was higher among Gen Z members compared to Gen Y in the survey results.
Among non-consumers, 8% of them are considering home cultivation now that it is legal. Adults can cultivate up to 3 plants in their private residences in Germany. Additionally, German adults can possess up to 25 grams when away from their residences.
According to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction’s (EMCDDA) recently published ‘2024 European Drug Report’, 34.7% of German adults have consumed cannabis at least once in their lives and 8.8% report having consumed cannabis within the last month.
According to the results of a recent YouGov poll, many German adults have already purchased cannabis clones or seeds. When asked, ‘Have you purchased cannabis seeds for personal cultivation since cannabis legalization?,’ 7% of YouGov poll participants answered that they have already purchased cannabis clones and/or seeds.
Additionally, 11% of poll participants stated that while they have not made a purchase yet, but that they plan on doing so in the future. Four percent of poll participants stated that they didn’t know or didn’t provide an answer, and the remainder indicated that they have no current plans to purchase cannabis clones or seeds.
When the results are filtered by age, 14% of poll participants aged 18-34 indicated that they had already purchased cannabis clones and/or seeds. Only 2% of German adults over 55 who participated in the YouGov poll indicated that they had already purchased cannabis clones and/or seeds. The poll was conducted on May 13th, 2024 and involved 3,375 surveyed German adults.