Poland is home to the third-largest legal medical cannabis industry in Europe, only behind Germany and the United Kingdom. At its peak in 2024, Poland’s emerging legal medical cannabis industry served an estimated 90,000 patients. However, toward the end of 2024, new regulations took effect, and that has dramatically decreased the European nation’s legal medical cannabis patient base.
The legal medical cannabis industry in Poland has largely benefited from the rise of telemedicine in recent years. Telemedicine involves suffering patients meeting with doctors digitally, versus going to a physical doctor’s office. The concept helps lessen the burden on patients who are seeking medical cannabis prescriptions, and is particularly helpful for rural patients and/or patients experiencing mobility issues.
“At the heart of Poland’s cannabis boom was a remarkable innovation in terms of access: licensed telemedicine platforms that offered fast, low-cost consultations to patients across the country—especially in rural areas underserved by traditional doctors or among populations less likely to visit. This model, proven in other global jurisdictions such as Germany and Australia, filled a crucial gap for patients who might otherwise never have seen a doctor.” CannaReporter wrote in its recent coverage of Poland’s industry.
The surge in patient numbers that Poland’s legal medical cannabis industry experienced in recent years was paralleled by domestic sales and medical cannabis product import figures. Below is Poland’s historical medical cannabis product import data via reporting by CannaMonitor:
- 1 ton of medical cannabis products imported in 2021
- 1.8 tons of medical cannabis products imported in 2022
- 4.5 tons of medical cannabis products imported in 2023
- 11.3 tons of medical cannabis products imported in 2024
Unfortunately, policymakers and regulators in Poland cracked down on the telemedicine practice in late 2024, which negatively impacted the nation’s legal medical cannabis patient numbers, and with it, industry sales.
“The results were immediate; monthly prescriptions collapsed by 55%, falling from 73,000 in October to 33,000 by December. The crackdown (though framed as a compliance measure) disproportionately impacted patients in underserved regions and disrupted the progress made by Poland’s fledgling medical cannabis ecosystem.” CannaMonitor notes.
“Some doctors have resumed telephone consultations under stricter procedures, taking advantage of the grey areas of the current rules. These adaptations are starting to yield results: in March 2025, the volume of prescriptions had returned to 44,000, an increase of 33% since December.” stated CannaReporter in its original coverage.
Poland implemented its medical cannabis program in 2017, with legal sales eventually being permitted through the nation’s registered pharmacies. According to initial reporting by Leafly in 2017, “nearly 90% will be authorized to distribute cannabis, and the Polish Pharmaceutical Chamber anticipates that up to 300,000 patients could qualify for medical marijuana treatment.”
Poland’s experience with a shifting telemedicine regulatory landscape may provide insight into what can be expected in other jurisdictions, particularly in Germany where telemedicine has yielded exponential industry growth in the last year after the nation adopted the CanG law and removed cannabis from Germany’s Narcotics List.
There is a push underway in Germany by cannabis opponents to hinder telemedicine platforms, which are currently very popular with patients. Only time will tell if such efforts are successful in Germany, and if so, what impact it will have on Europe’s largest medical cannabis industry.