UK Medical Cannabis Market Growth

In 2025, the UK imported more than 30,000 kilograms of cannabis-based medicinal products (CBPMs), more than doubling for the second consecutive year, new data from Prohibition Partners shows. 

Over the same period, the number of medical cannabis products available to patients also more than doubled, while Prohibition Partners estimates the market will expand by more than 40,000 patients by the end of 2026. 

The findings, published today in the UK Medical Cannabis Market Update 2026, cement the UK as one of Europe’s largest and fastest growing markets, and one that has quietly emerged almost entirely outside of the national healthcare system. 

“This is no longer a niche, fringe market,’ said Alexander Khourdaji, Senior Analyst at Prohibition Partners and lead author of the report. 

“In the space of two years, the UK has become one of the fastest-growing medical cannabis markets anywhere in the world, and most people have no idea it’s happening on this scale. Canada is now supplying the vast majority of the cannabis being prescribed to British patients, and the number of people accessing treatment is growing faster than almost anyone expected.”

Shifting supply chains

Perhaps the most consequential finding of the report is the speed and veracity of Canadian cannabis flower supply, and its knock-on effects for other export markets. 

Canadian exports to the UK grew by more than 560% in a single year, and Prohibition Partners estimates that Canada now accounts for 70–80% of all CBPMs entering the UK once cannabis re-routed through processing hubs, including Portugal, is factored in, a figure significantly higher than official Home Office data reflects.

For other exporters, the consequences have been severe. Spain supplied more than half of Britain’s medical cannabis as recently as 2023. By the end of 2025, its share had collapsed to just 11%. Australia and North Macedonia have seen comparable declines. 

Canada’s competitive advantage, excess production capacity, tight domestic margins, and the international expansion strategies of its licensed producers have created a supply dynamic that rivals will find difficult to challenge on volume alone.

Domestic cultivation, meanwhile, now represents approximately 14% of total supply, but is projected to decline as a share of the market as import volumes grow faster than UK production can scale.

The influx of new products from Canada and domestic producers is, as seen in the world’s other largest markets, driving price compression across every category. 

The average price of medical cannabis flower fell over the past year, and the report projects further declines through 2030. Vape prices dropped by more than 20% in the ten months to March 2026. 

According to Prohibition Partners’ analysis, the impact on operators will not be spread evenly. Those with Schedule 1-to-Schedule 2 processing capabilities in-house are best positioned to absorb this pressure, while those without face accelerating margin pressure. 

The product SKU count available to UK patients more than doubled between April 2025 and March 2026, spanning flower, extracts, and vapes. Dried flower accounts for roughly 80% of available products, though vape SKUs also more than doubled over the period as suppliers sought differentiation beyond the dominant format.

As seen in Germany, Australia and Poland, telemedicine is now the driving force behind the UK’s growth, with approximately 80% of all prescriptions issued now done so through less than a dozen leading telemedicine platforms. 

Yet, with the industry predicted to be nudging a billion pounds in revenues over the next four years, the UK’s regulators are now taking a much closer look at the industry and whether they believe it needs to be changed. 

The Care Quality Commission has flagged material concerns about oversight and prescribing consistency at some private clinics, and the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs is expected to conduct a formal review of the UK’s medical cannabis framework in 2026 or 2027, with telemedicine practices likely to be a focal point.

As Business of Cannabis reported following Poland’s telemedicine restriction in late 2024, prescription volumes can collapse quickly when access rules tighten, recovering only slowly through structural adaptation. The UK’s ACMD review does not necessarily point in that direction, but it is the single variable most capable of disrupting Prohibition Partners’ growth trajectory.