Australia and Germany are moving in opposite directions on medical cannabis imports, as both scramble to deal with the runaway growth of their medical cannabis markets.
This week, Australia’s Office of Drug Control (ODC) confirmed that the country’s 2025 cannabis import quota has been reduced by the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) from 101 tonnes to 88 tonnes, following chronic over-forecasting and unused permits that locked up capacity.
In contrast, Germany’s Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM) has reportedly raised its national import ceiling to keep pace with record levels of patient demand and a surge in authorised imports.
This could mark a major regulatory divergence between two of the world’s most closely watched medical cannabis markets, whose trajectories appeared to be closely parallelled just months ago.
INCB reviews quotas
As Business of Cannabis reported in its July series on the German and Australian medical cannabis markets, the telemedicine phenomenon has transformed how patients access medical treatment over the past few years, after being introduced into the mainstream during the pandemic.
For the cannabis industry, it has enabled digital clinics and online prescribing platforms to flourish, improving access, streamlining care and fuelling record patient growth.
Germany and Australia remain at the forefront of this newly emerging dynamic, and both have opened the doors to a flood of cannabis imports to meet newly surging demand.
The sheer volume of imports has now forced both markets to revisit their quotas for the amount of narcotic substances they’re able to import each year under international law.
Under the framework of the United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs (1961), the INCB oversees the global system of estimates and quotas for narcotic substances, including medical cannabis.
Each year, member states submit estimates of the quantities they expect to cultivate, manufacture, import, export and consume for medical and scientific purposes. The INCB reviews these submissions, compares them with previous utilisation and stock data, and then approves national quotas to ensure that supply remains proportionate to legitimate demand while preventing diversion into illicit channels.
National regulators such as Australia’s Office of Drug Control (ODC) and Germany’s Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM) are responsible for managing their domestic allocations within those limits. They issue import and export permits to licensed companies, track actual trade volumes, and report back to the INCB.
If actual activity diverges significantly from forecasts, for example, when importers overestimate or underutilise permits, the INCB may adjust future national estimates up or down to better reflect real-world consumption.
Germany increases import quota by nearly 60%
BfArM has confirmed that the country’s import quota has now been increased by approximately 70 tonnes, rising from 122 tonnes to 192.5 tonnes.
First reported by German cannabis news site Krautinvest, Business of Cannabis has independently confirmed this. BfArM told us:
“The Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM) had applied to the INCB for a second increase in the cannabis quota for the current year, 2025.
“The INCB has now confirmed this request. This will be published on the INCB website.
“The maximum quantity of cannabis released by the INCB for 2025 is 192 t 484 kg 23 g.”
This is especially significant given that the 122-tonne quota had already been exceeded by September, leading to a temporary suspension of new import licences.
According to reports, new licence permits are now once again being issued following the quota increase
For context, German cannabis imports have grown significantly over the last 18-months, seeing Q2 imports increase from 37.5 tonnes in Q1 to 43.3 tonnes, a 15% rise.
Australia reduces import cap
While Germany’s review appears to be the result of an underestimation of demand, Australia’s correction stems from widespread over-forecasting by licence holders, leaving significant portions of the national allocation unused.
The Office of Drug Control (ODC) confirmed that delays in processing import permits during 2025 were linked to companies requesting volumes far exceeding their actual capacity to import or distribute, effectively ‘locking up’ the quota and restricting access for compliant operators.
The issue, first raised by ODC assistant secretary Avi Rebera in late 2024, stems from the way Australia manages its annual allocation under the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) system. Each year, Australia receives an import estimate based on forecast patient demand and reported stock levels.
For 2025, the INCB set the national import quota at 101 tonnes, but the ODC subsequently received applications totalling around 150 tonnes. In practice, only half that amount was ever imported, as many permit holders either failed to use their approvals or imported substantially less than forecast.
In October 2025, the INCB formally reduced Australia’s quota to 88 tonnes, citing utilisation well below projected levels. The regulator noted that until importers provide more accurate forecasts and import quantities consistent with those forecasts, delays in processing new applications are likely to persist.
In an effort to combat this, the ODC also introduced new measures meaning that companies that fail to import at least 75 per cent of their approved volumes in 2025 will see their 2026 forecast reduced to match actual imports, while repeat offenders may face caps on future allocations. Importers have also been asked to relinquish unused or under-utilised permits and clearly mark requests intended for the following year to avoid double-counting.
Supply spike fuelling regulatory pushback
These corrections come as both markets explore sector-wide reform, as what began as a success story for access and innovation now prompts renewed scrutiny of how fast the legal cannabis industry is growing, and whether existing safeguards are keeping pace.
In Germany, the new right-leaning Federal Government has already published proposals to restrict telemedicine prescribing. While these are still making their way through the legislative process, the debate is seeping further into mainstream political discourse.
Federal Drug Commissioner, Hendrik Streeck, is a key voice in this debate. In a recent interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, he warned that the system’s lax controls had created ‘dealers in white coats,’ criticising clinics that issue prescriptions ‘like a pizza service’, without genuine medical examination.
Credit: Frank Burkhardt (Wikimedia Commons)
While stating explicitly that he does not oppose medical cannabis, he told FAZ: “Cannabis is now being promoted as a medicine for virtually anything, often without any evidence. And above all, it has become far too easy to obtain.
“Often there’s no doctor–patient contact at all. An online form replaces the examination, the prescription is issued abroad, and then filled here in Germany. That leaves me speechless. Everything happens under the label of a ‘medical prescription,’ but in reality, it’s often about ordinary drug use.
“The number of private prescriptions for cannabis has increased by more than 80 percent this year, and 83 percent of those are issued to men. As far as doctors are concerned, we’ve created dealers in white coats. It’s absolutely right that Federal Health Minister Nina Warken is now taking corrective action.”
He went on to suggest that cannabis flower could be restricted as part of the new reforms, meaning medical prescriptions would be limited ‘to capsules or drops’.
In parallel with its efforts to stabilise import management, Australia is also conducting a wide-ranging review of the country’s medicinal cannabis framework.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has received 751 submissions to its consultation on unapproved medicinal cannabis products, which closed in early October, and plans to complete its analysis by December, aiming to develop proposals by early 2026.
The Australian Medical Association (AMA) has warned that the country’s telehealth boom has become “vulnerable to exploitation”, particularly in connection with cannabis prescribing. In a submission to the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) as part of its ongoing review of unapproved medicinal cannabis products, Dr Danielle McMullen, the AMA’s vice president, said single-issue telehealth providers were bypassing general practitioners and specialists, placing patient safety at risk.
This was largely supported by a recent study, led by Professor Nicholas Lintzeris and colleagues at the University of Sydney, published in the Journal of Cannabis Research (October 2025), finding significant differences in patient experience between Australia’s specialist cannabis clinics (MCCs) and general health services (GHS).
Drawing on responses from 2,394 medicinal cannabis patients, the survey found that nearly 80 per cent accessed treatment through dedicated cannabis clinics rather than general practitioners.
The authors concluded that while cannabis clinics have been vital in expanding patient access, they may contribute to fragmented care and higher treatment costs. The paper calls for further independent research into clinical quality, safety, and long-term outcomes in these high-volume telemedicine-style clinics.
As both Australia and Germany confront the same dilemma, they illustrate a global inflection point: as medical cannabis markets mature and imports accelerate, regulatory systems built for cautious, controlled access are being forced to evolve.
The question facing both governments, and the INCB system that underpins them, is whether they can manage that growth without reversing the patient access gains that drove it.
