🇬🇧 UK Overview
The pace of regulatory growth in medical cannabis has been slow in the UK, however the rate of market development has been rapid. Patient numbers are rising significantly each year, alongside a growth in suppliers, clinics and pharmacies.
The UK’s market is open to new players and new suppliers, however it is a strictly regulated environment, with import licensing procedures in particular posing an obstacle to suppliers. Participation in the market requires strong relationships with the network of players operating in the industry.
The majority of market supply is through imports, although due to the nature of the UK’s regulatory frameworks, a large proportion of imports are of products which are legally classified as raw materials, with final manufacturing steps carried out domestically. As well as this, commercial domestic cultivation has been rising rapidly over the past year. Several UK players are now selling significant volumes of UK-cultivated flower in the market, and several more are gearing up to do the same.
🇬🇧 Regulations
The Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001 permits the legal use of certain controlled drugs for medical, dental, or veterinary purposes. In November 2018, these regulations were amended to allow specialist doctors to prescribe cannabis-based medicines to patients. As of November 2024, the government has indicated that it does not intend to make further changes to this arrangement.
Medical cannabis is not prescribed by doctors as part of the UK’s public healthcare system, the National Health Service (NHS), in accordance with prescribing guidelines published by the relevant regulatory body, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). As a consequence of this, the UK’s medical cannabis market is entirely through private-payer healthcare, with patients getting prescribed through private clinics, and bearing the full cost of treatment.
Importing patient-ready finished products requires permits on a shipment-by-shipment basis, increasing the costs of importation and driving the development of a domestic industry for the final manufacturing steps of medical cannabis products.
The licensing system for commercial medical cannabis and manufacture in the UK is stringent, costly, and time-consuming, however it is open to any company which has suitable means and facilities, meaning the UK’s medical cannabis production industry is open to new entrants.
🇬🇧 Patient Access
Who Can Prescribe?
Doctors on the General Medical Council (GMC) Specialist Register. Prescribing specialists must have use an FP10 controlled prescription pad to issue prescriptions.
Before each initial prescription, a multidisciplinary peer group must discuss to decide if medical cannabis treatment is suitable for the patient.
What are the treatable pathologies?
There is no specific list of conditions which are treatable by medical cannabis, it is at the doctor’s discretion in the case of each patient, and suitability depends on whether there is evidence for the efficacy of medical cannabis for a particular condition, and how the patient has responded to other treatments.
Privately Insured Patients:
Currently, there is no reimbursement for medical cannabis in the UK, patients have to pay for their own treatment fully.
🇬🇧 UK Country Sponsor
Partner with Curaleaf Laboratories
Curaleaf Laboratories can help you enter the growing UK medical cannabis market, providing opportunities to accelerate prescriber and patient growth with you and their marketing-leading expertise and innovative forward-thinking business capabilities.
A number of partnership opportunities are currently available to form a mutually beneficial relationship and grow the UK medical cannabis market:
Specialist Clinics & Prescribers
Curaleaf Laboratories provide an effective route to be able to prescribe our full range of UK-manufatured, full spectrum medical cannabis
Producers
Curaleaf Laboratories works with high quality producers to help launch their range products in the UK market
Pharmacies
Curaleaf Laboratories provides opportunities for community pharmacies to enter the growing market of medical cannabis in the UK with confidence
Healthcare Professionals
Curaleaf Laboratories engages with healthcare professionals across the UK, to provide education and opportunities to refer their patients
Partnership Request
Complete this short form to register your interest in partnering with Curaleaf Laboratories
🇬🇧 Products & Prices
The average price per gram for medical cannabis flowers in the UK (excluding upcoming/discontinued products) is £6.95 as of December 2025.
As is the case in Germany, Canada supplies more medical cannabis products to the UK market than any other country. Domestic production is ramping up in the country. The largest UK-based cultivator is Glass Pharms, which supplies a large majority of the UK-cultivated products in the market. It should be noted that this graph does not include oil products, and that it reflects the number of unique flower stock keeping units (SKUs) sold in the UK which are cultivated in a given country, rather than being a comparison of volume.
The majority of products sold in the UK’s medical cannabis market are flower, however the proportion of non-flower products is significant. Oils and vapes are growing in number, though other formats have now been prohibited, including edibles and capsules.
🇬🇧 Imports & Exports
According to official data acquired by Prohibition Partners, the UK imported approximately 1.8-2.8 tonnes of medical cannabis annually between 2019-2021, 6.8-7.8 tonnes annually between 2022-2023, and 15.5 tonnes in 2024. As of 18 August 2025, the official data reflects over 12 tonnes of imports, indicating that the magnitude of annual import volumes in 2025 will exceed that of 2024 by a significant margin.
The main suppliers of the UK’s medical cannabis market in terms of volume are Canada, Spain and Portugal. A significant proportion of imports from Spain, Canada, and all of the imports from Germany, are products which have been imported by those countries, processed, and re-exported to the UK. The majority of these products are cultivated in Canada and Portugal.
🇬🇧 Domestic Production (UK & Channel Islands)
There are four companies currently cultivating medical cannabis commercially for the UK market – Dalgety, Glass Pharms, Celadon and Northern Leaf.
The volume produced by these players is still relatively small, with Glass Pharms believed to have the largest operational cultivation capacity thus far, having signed a supply agreement with Releaf clinics to supply 145 kilograms of medical cannabis per month, totalling an annual capacity of 1,750 kilograms.
Curaleaf and IPS Pharma are both engaged in EU-GMP manufacturing of medical cannabis products in the UK. Both companies import bulk distillate for the production and sale of oil products under UK brands, some of which buy the products ‘white label’. Additionally, Curaleaf also imports bulk flower products, and carries out final packaging steps in the UK.
