UK imports topped 30,000 kg in 2025, products doubled and Prohibition Partners sees 40,000+ more patients by end-2026.
Across the European Union’s wider cannabis-policy debate, the UK medical cannabis market has become a useful test case for how quickly legal access can scale. In a market report covered by Business of Cannabis, Prohibition Partners said 2025 imports of cannabis-based medicinal products passed 30,000 kilograms, while the number of products available to patients more than doubled. The same analysis points to more than 40,000 additional patients by the end of 2026.
Imports and product choice are rising together
The headline is not just that imports are rising. It is that supply, choice and demand are moving together, which is why the UK market has surprised even people close to it. Prohibition Partners said 2025 imports of cannabis-based medicinal products more than doubled for the second consecutive year, and that the number of products available to patients also more than doubled.
The recent acceleration can be read as a short sequence of steps:
A newsroom image of that growth would likely show the administrative side of the market rather than the plant itself:
The scale behind the projection
The value side of the market is just as striking. Prohibition Partners’ global medical cannabis market review 2026 estimated the UK market at $298 million in 2025 and said it had grown 104% year on year. Those figures help explain why clinics, pharmacists and suppliers are treating the sector less like a niche and more like an expanding healthcare market.
The main signals line up as follows:
| Signal | What the reporting says | Why it matters | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Imports and product choice | More than 30,000 kilograms imported in 2025, while the number of products available to patients more than doubled | Suggests demand and supply are widening together, not moving in isolation | Business of Cannabis report on the UK market |
| Market value and patient outlook | $298 million estimated market value in 2025, 104% year-on-year growth, and more than 40,000 additional patients expected by end-2026 | Shows the market is moving into a larger commercial and clinical phase | Prohibition Partners global medical cannabis market review 2026 |
Pharmacists and clinics now sit at the centre of access
The prescribing side helps explain why the sector can grow so quickly. In England, FOI data on the top CBPM prescribers showed that nine of the ten highest prescribers were pharmacists, a sign that the market is still being built around specialist clinic and pharmacy workflows rather than conventional hospital pathways.
Why the prescriber mix matters
That mix matters for three practical reasons:
- It points to a sector that is still highly dependent on private-clinic access routes.
- It suggests pharmacists are not just dispensing products but shaping how patients move into treatment.
- It helps explain why product availability and prescriber supply have expanded in step with patient demand.
A photographer covering the sector would likely find the story in the paperwork and the workflow, not in any generic cannabis imagery:
The regulatory question has not gone away
Seven years after cannabis was rescheduled for medical use, the market still has a regulatory problem to solve: access is improving, but the system is not yet settled. An OpenAccessGovernment overview of the current UK market said barriers remain for patients and challenges remain for clinicians, even as the market continues to evolve.
What the UK surge means for Europe’s medical-cannabis debate
For an international audience, the UK is useful less as an exception than as a signal. It shows how quickly a medical cannabis market can move once products multiply, prescribers become more visible and patient awareness starts to reinforce demand.
Readers usually ask the same practical questions about the current numbers:
Reader questions about the UK market
How much medical cannabis did the UK import in 2025?
Prohibition Partners said the UK imported more than 30,000 kilograms of cannabis-based medicinal products in 2025.
How fast is the market growing?
The reporting says imports more than doubled for the second consecutive year, product availability more than doubled, and Prohibition Partners estimated 104% year-on-year growth in 2025.
How many more patients are expected by the end of 2026?
Prohibition Partners expects the market to expand by more than 40,000 patients by the end of 2026.
Who appears to be doing much of the prescribing?
FOI data published by Business of Cannabis showed that nine of the ten top CBPM prescribers were pharmacists.
The UK story is no longer about whether medical cannabis exists as a market; it is about how fast that market can scale and how carefully it is supervised while it does. The latest data point to a sector still in expansion mode, with imports, products and patient numbers all moving up together.