Upcoming amendments to the Medical Cannabis Act (MedCanG) – Telemedicine platforms under scrutiny

On December 18, 2025, the German Bundestag held the first reading of the Federal Government’s draft bill for an initial amendment to the Medical Cannabis Act (MedCanG). The government aims to respond to a sharp surge in imports of cannabis flower for medical purposes, which have risen by up to 400 percent, as well as to the growing use of telemedicine platforms for issuing prescriptions. Following the first reading and plenary debate, the draft bill was referred to the relevant parliamentary committees for further consideration, led by the Health Committee.

A core element of the bill is a comprehensive revision of Section 3 MedCanG. Paragraph 1 is to be amended to explicitly stipulate that cannabis for medical purposes may only be prescribed where a valid medical indication exists. Paragraph 2, by contrast, is to be completely rewritten. Under the current law, the provision reads as follows:

“Cannabis prescribed for medical purposes pursuant to paragraph 1 may be dispensed to end consumers only through the operation of a pharmacy upon presentation of a prescription. Section 14 Paragraph 7 of the Pharmacy Act remains unaffected.”

The Federal Government’s draft bill now proposes the following new wording:

“The cannabis flowers referred to in Section 2 No. 1 may only be prescribed following an in-person consultation between the patient and the prescribing physician at the physician’s medical practice or in the course of a home visit by the prescribing physician to the patient. Follow-up prescriptions may be issued without a renewed in-person consultation pursuant to sentence 1 only if the prescribing physician has prescribed the cannabis flowers referred to in Section 2 No. 1 to the patient within the last four quarters, including the current quarter, following an in-person consultation pursuant to sentence 1. (…)”

This would mean that, in future, the initial prescription of cannabis for medical purposes would be permitted exclusively after a face-to-face consultation between patient and physician—either at the doctor’s practice or during a home visit. According to the explanatory memorandum, a medical practice is defined as “the physical location where a physician receives, advises, examines and treats patients,” irrespective of whether it is a solo or group practice.

The legislative rationale further clarifies that, as a result of the amendment, “treatment exclusively with cannabis flowers for medical purposes via video consultation is to be excluded due to the special status of cannabis flowers for medical use.”

The background to this reform is the rapid growth of telemedicine platforms that enable consumers to obtain medical cannabis flowers without ever having a personal doctor–patient consultation—or, in some cases, any direct contact with a physician at all. In practice, consumers can initiate an order for medical cannabis simply by completing an online questionnaire on a telemedicine platform, with dispensing handled by cooperating mail-order pharmacies. In such cases, there is neither personal contact with a physician nor interaction with pharmaceutical staff at the pharmacy.

Given the risk of dependency associated with cannabis use and the potential health risks related to brain development, medical cannabis is considered to occupy a special position among prescription-only medicinal products. This special status, the explanatory memorandum argues, now warrants specific regulatory measures to safeguard patient safety without undermining access to medicines.

The planned amendment is therefore intended to effectively prohibit telemedical prescriptions of medical cannabis altogether. Should the draft bill pass the Bundestag unchanged, it could represent a significant setback for the competitiveness of telemedicine providers—at least in the medical cannabis segment.

For further insights into the legal framework and current developments in telemedicine, please refer to our white paper “Digital Health & Telemedizin,” available for download here. An English version of the white paper will be available soon. A more in-depth overview of the legal foundations of telemedicine will also be provided by our partner Dr Oliver Stöckel at the DVNW Forum on February 25, 2026.