European Union To Establish Adult-Use Cannabis Pathways For Member States

OG Article by Peter

October 01 2025

With increasing numbers of countries embracing cannabis, the European Union is launching a toolkit to help national policy-makers frame their adult-use legislation.

In doing so, it is aligning with the continent’s changing cannabis landscape as Germany, the Netherlands, Malta, Czechia, Luxembourg and non-EU neighbour Switzerland, all develop their own recreational cannabis infrastructure.

It is also in tune with an acknowledgement by United Nations bodies that punitive prohibition has failed and needs to be replaced with a harm-reduction approach to drug control.

Created by the European Union Drugs Agency (EUDA), the toolkit is to be known as Cannapol, and is designed to deliver an ‘evidence-based’ approach to continental cannabis liberalisation.

Harm-Reduction Approach

EUDA says its creation is the result of ‘changing public opinion’ and a focus on a harm reduction approach to drug use.

The development has been welcomed by Michael Greif, Managing Director of the German Cannabis Business Association (BvCW).

He told Business of Cannabis: “The Cannapol project marks a careful step into the right direction for European cannabis regulation. 

“While drug policy is a sensitive matter, traditionally reserved to the national regulatory autonomy of Member States, the EU is supporting national efforts through data collection, capacity-building, best-practice identification, as well as co-operation and information exchanges.

“The Cannapol project thereby provides a great opportunity to shape evidence-based policy-making in collaboration between regulators, researchers and other market and civil society participants.” 

He did go on to say that the EUDA’s limited competence in the wider EU bureaucracy means Cannapol could be viewed as a ‘promising box-ticking exercise’

He added: “It does represent a component of evidence-based policy making which is in line with accelerating regulatory developments at the EU level.”

EUDA has so far given little indication of the shape of the evolving project. In its response to Business of Cannabis, it stated that it will examine the pros and cons of both ‘home-grown’ and ‘retail markets’ (see below). 

Adult-Use – Not Medical

Spawned from the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, EUDA was launched last year with an increased budget and remit.

It launched Cannapol in June at a two-day meeting with experts from EU Member States and its appointed project partners, RAND Europe and the Trimbos Instituut. 

During the first year of the three-year project, these partners will undertake a data-gathering exercise which EUDA say ‘will involve approaching some 50 individuals or organisations, across 10-12 countries, to understand the pragmatics of existing or future policy implementation’. 

This point was pursued by Stephen Murphy, Co-Founder and CEO of Europe’s leading events, media and data business Prohibition Partners.

“We welcome any attempt to create a harmonised and evidence-led framework for cannabis reform across Europe, but for Cannapol to be effective, it must reflect the realities of the cannabis sector,” he said. 

“So far, the engagement process has been vague. Despite repeated offers from industry to contribute insights, there has been little clarity on who is being consulted or how stakeholder feedback will be integrated into the toolkit.

“Regulatory frameworks do not operate in a vacuum. They evolve in response to real-world market dynamics. In countries like Switzerland, regulators have worked closely with businesses, patients and civil society to co-develop practical and forward-looking models. 

“If Cannapol is to avoid becoming a well-intentioned box-ticking exercise, it must ensure that dialogue with the industry is not just symbolic but substantive.

“We hope EUDA and its partners will recognise that the success of any policy framework depends on building it with those who are shaping the market every day.”