90% of Germans now get their cannabis from legal sources, survey shows 

A survey of more than 11,000 German cannabis users has found that 88.6% acquired their cannabis legally in the past six months, suggesting the country’s reform efforts are successfully undermining the illegal market.

The findings indicate that Germany’s Cannabis Act (CanG), which came into effect on 1st April 2024, has achieved one of its primary objectives: removing the trade from the hands of drug dealers and into regulated channels.

The survey was conducted by researchers from the Institute for Addiction Research at the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences and the Evangelical University of Freiburg, and was open for completion between 24th March and 10th June 2025.

The 11,471 respondents had a median age of 37 years, and 99.2% stated they were adults aged over 18 years old, although the survey was open to all persons over the age of 14. The survey contained 41 questions, which mainly focused on obtaining information about people’s methods of consumption and purchasing sources.

Distributed via social media channels, the survey was targeted at social media users who had previously engaged in the fields of drug policy and cannabis activism, and those who had a particularly high reach. Other organisations such as the State Offices for Addiction Issues, the German Central Office for Addiction Issues, the Federal Institute for Public Health, and drug and youth welfare institutions were also tasked with distributing the questionnaire. Cannabis clubs and social media influencers were also sent the survey in an effort to reach as many people as possible.

The study author explained why reaching as many participants as possible is necessary to produce accurate results, noting that “international studies have shown that frequent and especially intensive users are responsible for the majority of cannabis consumed in a country. Occasional users, who usually make up the majority of those with 12-month prevalence, consume only a very small portion of the total market. Thus, in order to estimate shifts in market volume from illegal to legal sources, it is advantageous to reach many individuals with regular and intensive usage patterns, which this survey achieved. Nevertheless, it should be emphasised that changes in occasional users are also relevant.”

Nearly all (97.5%) participants reported that they had used cannabis (CBD and synthetic cannabis were excluded) before the law changed in Germany. When asked when the last time they had used cannabis, 60.4% said in the past 24 hours, 33.3% in the past 30 days (but not in the past 24 hours), and 6.3% in the past 12 months (but not in the past 30 days). Women were slightly less likely to have used in the past 30 days than men and those who identified as “diverse individuals”.

Use frequency varied significantly. 39.2% said they used daily, 28.8% used several times a week, 12.8% once a week, 11.8% once a month, and 7.3% once a year. Women and diverse individuals were shown to consume less frequently than men.

The average amount of cannabis consumed by the whole group was 1.26 grams per day. Individual consumption patterns showed 29.7% used less than 0.5g per day, 31.5% between 0.5g and 1g per day, 26.9% between 1g and 2g per day, and 11.9% consumed more than 2g per day. Gender differences in consumption amounts were minimal.

The most common consumption method was smoking in a joint with tobacco (40.4%). Others reported using vaporiser (37.7%), joints without tobacco (10.1%), hookah (6%), edibles (2.4%), pipe (1.5%), dabbing (0.7%) and e-vapes (0.4%).

Women use joints with tobacco significantly more than men, whilst men and those identifying as diverse used vaporisers more often than women.

Young adults were more likely to use joints than adults – six times more likely to use joints without tobacco – whilst adults were more likely to use a vaporiser than adolescents.

“Those who smoke joints without tobacco as their main form of consumption are on average 32.2 years old, whilst for joints with tobacco this figure is 35.6 years, for vaporisers 39.2 years and for pipes 44.3 years,” the author wrote.

The results suggest German society has adapted quickly to legal cannabis, with respondents indicating they sourced their products via home grows (including that grown by friends), cannabis cultivation associations and medical cannabis pharmacies. The rapid shift from the illicit market is unlike the trends seen in Canada, where consumers took years to transition to the legal market – nearly all German cannabis consumers are using the new legal framework despite its relatively recent introduction.