When it comes to cannabis policy and industry, Bulgaria may be the most conservative country in Europe. A handful of other European nations have an argument to be made, but you will be hard pressed to find a European country that is more conservative towards cannabis policy modernization than Bulgaria.
Ironically, Bulgaria is often touted as being the first European Union member-nation to allow the sale of cannabidiol (CBD) products. In 2019, Bulgaria’s Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, and the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency reportedly issued a Free Certificate of Sale for a series of products containing CBD.
Despite that CBD claim to fame, Bulgaria does not allow recreational cannabis use, nor does it permit suffering patients to obtain and use medical cannabis products. All that is allowed are industrial hemp-derived products, and even then, only in limited instances.
Even though Bulgaria’s cannabis laws are some of the harshest in Europe, the nation is still home to a considerable number of cannabis consumers. As with every country on the planet, cannabis prohibition policies in Bulgaria have not resulted in cannabis consumption rates dropping to zero.
According to a 2024 report by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), roughly 1% of Bulgarians aged between 15-64 years old reported having consumed cannabis within the last month.
The population of people aged 15-64 in Bulgaria in 2024 was roughly 3.7 million people. Applying the 1% monthly cannabis usage rate works out to about 37,000 Bulgarian monthly cannabis consumers. That calculation is not an approximation, but it does provide a rough idea of Bulgaria’s active cannabis consumer base.
EMCDDA’s report also found that an estimated 2.4% of people between the ages of 15 and 64 in Bulgaria reported having consumed cannabis at least once in the last year. Applying the same calculation of consumption rate to the applicable population works out to 88,800 yearly cannabis consumers in Bulgaria.
Lastly, EMCDDA also published data related to lifetime cannabis consumption. About 8.74% of Bulgaria’s 15-64 year old citizens reported having consumed cannabis at least once in their lifetime. Using the same calculation, that works out to 323,380 people. For contextual purposes, 45% of people in the United States report having consumed cannabis at least once in their lifetime.