Union of Cannabis Retailers — knowledge platform — Recreational Cannabis Foundation
Compare cannabis policy phases, active market models and recent developments across the jurisdictions monitored by RCF.
Phase legend
- 1. Prohibition: No official adult-use opening; possession and supply criminalised.
- 2. Preparation: Official policy or legislative preparation for adult-use reform.
- 3. Medical only: Medical market or exception regime exists, but no adult-use channel.
- 4. Decriminalised: Possession and/or home cultivation decriminalised, no legal supply chain.
- 5. Pilot or non-commercial: Pilot market or non-commercial regulated adult-use supply.
- 6. Commercial retail: Commercial regulated adult-use retail market.
Jurisdictions
- Netherlands — Medical programme since 2001/2003; tolerated coffeeshop retail since the 1970s; statutory closed-chain pilot in the experimentation phase since April 2025.
- Germany — Medical cannabis since 2017; CanG legalised possession, home cultivation and non-commercial cultivation associations in April 2024.
- Czechia — Medical cannabis regime since April 2013; government RIA and reform pathway visible but no confirmed adult-use opening in primary sources.
- Switzerland — Federal law amendment (2021) created the pilot basis; medical use freed from BAG exception permits in August 2022.
- United Kingdom — Cannabis-based products for medicinal use rescheduled by UKSI 2018/1055; no adult-use opening in primary UK legislation.
- Italy — State organism for medical cannabis established in 2015; no adult-use market opening in the sources reviewed.
- Austria — SMG-Novelle 2007 anchors medical cannabis cultivation under AGES; no adult-use opening.
- Malta — Medical production act (2018); Responsible Use of Cannabis Act (2021) enables home cultivation and non-commercial associations; amendments in 2025.
- European Union — No own consumer market competence; European Parliament resolution on medicinal cannabis (2019) and EU Drugs Strategy 2021–2025 as overarching frameworks.
- Thailand — Narcotics Act No. 7 (2019) as medical basis; 2022 delisting from Category 5 opened adult-use briefly; 2025 controlled-herb notifications refocus on medical channels.
- United States — Subnational commercial adult-use markets since Washington I-502 (2012); California Prop 215 (1996) opened medical; federally still Schedule I with rescheduling procedure pending.
- Australia — Federal medical cannabis since Narcotic Drugs Amendment Act 2016; ACT personal cannabis use regime in force January 2020 (territorial).
- Canada — Marihuana Medical Access Regulations (2001) established medical access; Cannabis Act (2018) created the federal adult-use retail market.
- Lebanon — Law No. 178 of 2020 legalised cannabis cultivation for medical and industrial use. The Regulatory Authority has now published a package of draft regulations, technical annexes (GACP, GSP, GMP, track-and-trace) and nineteen digital licence application procedures. No adult-use market.
Latest updates
- — Regulatory Authority publishes draft framework and digital licensing portal
- — Controlled-herb notifications refocus on medical channels
- — Various Laws relating to Cannabis Activities (Amendment) Act
- — Experimentation phase begins
- — Oral CBD compositions added to medicinal table B
- — Federal rescheduling procedure under way
- — Cannabisgesetz (CanG) in force
- — Government regulatory impact assessment on cannabis reform
Market models
- No legal market: Cannabis remains fully prohibited outside narrow research or medical exceptions.
- Medical only: Regulated medical prescription route; no adult-use retail or possession relief.
- Decriminalised possession: Personal possession no longer prosecuted, but no legal supply chain.
- Home cultivation: Adults may legally cultivate a limited number of plants for personal use.
- Cannabis social clubs: Non-commercial associations collectively cultivate and distribute to their members.
- Dutch coffeeshop model: Tolerated retail sales through coffeeshops under conditions, with a supply chain historically outside the law.
- Pilot / experiment: Statutorily grounded pilot with regulated production and distribution in defined areas.
- Licensed commercial retail: Full commercial adult-use market with licensed producers and retailers.