Luxembourg Medical Cannabis

In June 2018, legislators unanimously approved a bill to legalize the medical use of cannabis in Luxembourg.

A two-year cannabis pilot program began in February 2019. The law allowed cannabis in the form of medicinal oil and flowers from an approved set of medicines to be prescribed by any general practitioner if they have received appropriate training to be used for patients suffering from chronic pain, nausea relating to chemotherapy, or muscle spasm resulting from multiple sclerosis, with full cost coverage by the Ministry of Health.

Medical cannabis was prescribed to 600 patients in 2020, meaning Luxembourg has almost as many legal prescriptions per population as Europe’s leader, Germany. Luxembourg faced the same problems as Italy, Poland and Malta, as the limited number of approved products left the supply chain vulnerable to shortages of the small range of available strains.

Luxembourg Recreational Cannabis

In 2023, the Luxembourg parliament approved a bill to legalize the possession and cultivation of cannabis for adults, making Luxembourg the second country in the European Union to adopt the reform after Malta, which passed legislation allowing limited cultivation and possession of cannabis for personal use in December 2021. Effective July 21, 2023, the new law allows adults in Luxembourg to grow up to four cannabis plants per household, cultivated solely from seeds in the home or habitual residence not visible from public places.

In April 2023, the government announced plans to issue two licenses for domestic cannabis production and control the entire supply chain over 14 dispensaries across the country. Production permits will allow the cultivation, processing and distribution, under certain conditions, of cannabis for recreational purposes. The production and sale of pre-rolled cannabis forms will be prohibited.

The producer will have to fulfil the following criteria (non-exhaustive list):

• The producer must put together a project proposal covering cultivation operations, post-harvest facilities, quality inspections, quality management system, and the cannabis varieties it wishes to grow.
• The producer must guarantee compliance with product quality standards throughout the entire production chain (growing, packaging, storage, etc.).
• The producer is responsible for security measures, in particular the completely secure storage of the cannabis, and must ensure a safe and healthy work environment.
• The producer must undertake to use exclusively the tracking software provided by the national control agency, enabling the route taken by each finished product to be tracked, so that the closed cannabis production chain can be properly monitored.
• The producer will not be permitted to make sales online or deliver to customers’ homes.

Cannabis will be sold only in publicly owned dispensaries with a concession agreement. A dispensary can be officially opened only after a full inspection by the relevant government services. The only people eligible to purchase cannabis for non-medical purposes will be residents 18 years of age or older who have not exceeded the monthly purchase limit of 30 grams per month. Online sales and home delivery will be prohibited.

Source: cannabusinessplans.eu.

Luxembourg Cannabis Market Infographics