The second conference day of Cannabis Europa London 2026 made it clear on Wednesday where the next growth levers for the European industry lie. While the opening day focused on Germany’s consolidation wave, the panels at the Barbican Centre on May 27 centered on three topics that will shape competition in the coming twelve months: standardized genetics, Germany’s stalled telemedicine regulation, and the long-overlooked area of women’s health.
📑 Inhaltsverzeichnis
Over 1,000 delegates and more than 70 speakers filled the auditorium. Observations from the Voices interviews, the All-Eyes-on-Germany panel, and the women’s health session provide a picture that directly affects DACH stakeholders. We’ve pulled together the key threads.
Genetics as Unresolved Standard Competition
The opening session on genetics brought three industry veterans to the stage—Arjan Roskam (Green House Genetics), Dave Auger (Big League Genetics), and Adele Hollman (Sanity Group)—who have been waiting for years for a unified genetic language. Hollman summarized the core question this way: „Genetics is the first variable we can control to have a predictable outcome.“ In other words: if the beginning of the value chain doesn’t rest on a reproducible strain, all downstream standards are promises without substance. This applies from GMP cultivation to pharmacy dispensing.
Roskam became more specific, naming the central weakness. Around 90 percent of producers ship their flowers after six to eight days of drying, even though 14 days are needed to properly break down chlorophyll and residual moisture. The result: taste and effect profiles fray, patients experience the same strain as having different efficacy. The market loses trust. Auger added that many distributors simply rename established genetics. This means patients can’t reliably find effective products again after a supplier change.
Hollman identified the lack of data feedback from the patient bedside back to the breeder as the largest structural gap. This is exactly where Roskam’s announced „Cannabigator“ app comes in: it’s designed to suggest cannabinoid profiles to patients based on their illness and concomitant medication, and feed feedback anonymized into a genetics database. For German pharmacies and telemedicine providers, this would be a substantial addition to the current trial-and-error dosing, which we’ve already identified as a structural problem in the debate around 25-percent THC prescriptions.
Telemedicine Germany: Lütke, Heitepriem and EU Law
The highly anticipated telemedicine panel featured Kristine Lütke (recently of the FDP parliamentary group), Dirk Heitepriem (Cannabis Industry Association), Sascha Mielcarek (Canify), and Niels Lutzhöft (Bird & Bird). They discussed the draft from the Federal Ministry of Health, which has been awaiting a second reading since December 2025 and includes provisions such as mandatory in-person initial consultation and a ban on cannabis flower shipping.
Lütke positioned herself clearly against the planned restrictions: „I’m not convinced that restricting telemedicine will have any positive effect on public health.“ Her argument: patients who could no longer access care digitally would switch to the black market, not to in-person doctors. Heitepriem recalled the rationale behind the CanG: „They said we don’t want home growing because quality can’t be secured.“ The same logic is being undermined by the current telemedicine brake. The restriction would make regulated supply harder and unregulated consumption easier, according to the association representative.
Legally, Lutzhöft got specific. A German special regulation that excludes doctors in other EU countries from prescribing to German patients would, in his view, violate freedom of services and freedom of establishment. The German Constitutional Court had set precedents in comparable cases for rejecting inconsistent legislation. Heitepriem called the parallel proposal to end statutory health insurance coverage for cannabis flowers an „attack on the really, really ill people“ and described it as politically motivated rather than economically justified. The escalating debate around online prescriptions thus gains legal weight on a European stage.
Women’s Health: Endocannabinoid System Meets Hormone Curve
A session that received a permanent place in the program for the first time in London addressed women’s health. On stage: Dr. Grace Blest-Hopley (Hystelica), Dr. Michelle Nyangereka (Our Mothers‘ Gardens), and Suzanne Mulvehill (Female Orgasm Research Institute). Blest-Hopley articulated the structural critique: „Western medicine has treated women as little men.“ Women have long been excluded from clinical trials because of their hormonal variability, resulting in cannabinoid therapies being calibrated primarily on male data.
Substantively, the endocannabinoid system was interwoven with the hormone curve. Estrogen and progesterone act as neurosteroids, directly affecting cannabinoid receptor activity. As estrogen drops during perimenopause, anandamide—the body’s own cannabinoid—breaks down faster. The result: increased pain sensitivity, increased anxiety, worse sleep. New data from Maastricht additionally show that the anxiolytic effect of THC in women fluctuates cyclically and differs significantly from the consistent male response. Differentiated dosing across the menstrual cycle is not wishful thinking by these findings, but a medical necessity.
Mulvehill reported that Illinois became the first US state to include sex-specific indications such as endometriosis, ovarian cysts, and female orgasm disorder in its medical cannabis program. Blest-Hopley simultaneously criticized the fact that the European market consists almost exclusively of high-dose THC flowers, which is hardly practical for working women with high cognitive demands. Suppositories as an alternative are emerging, but are often incorrectly formulated by male teams lacking anatomical understanding. Nyangereka broadened the view: the three to four times higher maternal mortality among Black women in Britain is not a physiological but a visibility-based issue. The panel’s demand: the endocannabinoid system in every medical textbook.
The EFSA had classified CBD as reproductive toxic just days earlier; THC has long been classified accordingly internationally. For pregnancy and breastfeeding, Blest-Hopley said, it’s therefore clear: „Women should not be using cannabis.“ Those looking to continue the women-cannabis debate in Germany will find the medical core in patients‘ endocannabinoid system, not in lifestyle narratives.
What DACH Stakeholders Should Take from These Three Strands
The three topics seem disparate at first glance. In fact, they share a common diagnosis: the European market is scaling faster than standards can keep up. Genetic reproducibility, legally secure telemedicine, and differentiated indications for women are three levers that in DACH must practically be worked on by the same players. Those wanting to gain market share in the coming twelve months build these standards in-house rather than waiting for the next regulatory push. Those who miss this risk being relegated to pure import logistics during the consolidation wave, as Q1 figures on German imports already suggest.
Remarkable too was how self-critically the British host contextualized its own cannabis policy. Several panels pointed to police operations against patients with valid prescriptions as an ongoing UK problem, while Germany—despite the telemedicine debate—remains positioned as a premium prescription market. This asymmetry could force importers still betting on British clusters to reorient in the coming months. The topics sketched in London are likely to be revisited from a German perspective at the 7th Medicinal Cannabis Congress at the Charité on May 28 and 29.
Frequently Asked Questions
What were the central topics on the second day of Cannabis Europa London 2026?
Three strands were in focus: reproducible genetics as a prerequisite for patient outcomes, Germany’s stalled telemedicine regulation along with EU legal risks, and cannabis in women’s health with endocannabinoid system, hormone curve, and sex-specific indications.
Why is the German telemedicine debate relevant to the entire EU?
Germany is Europe’s largest medical cannabis market. A restriction on online prescribing would not only change the German care pathway but would influence telemedicine models in the Netherlands, Poland, Czechia, and the UK. Lutzhöft (Bird & Bird) also pointed to EU freedom of services as a legal hurdle if Germany excludes foreign doctors.
What role do hormones play in cannabis effects in women?
Estrogen and progesterone directly modulate the endocannabinoid system. As estrogen levels drop, particularly during perimenopause, anandamide is broken down more rapidly, which increases pain and anxiety sensitivity. Studies from Maastricht additionally show that the anxiety-relieving THC effect fluctuates across the female menstrual cycle and differs from the male response.
What is „Cannabigator“ and who presented the app?
„Cannabigator“ is an app presented by Green House founder Arjan Roskam on May 27 in London. It’s designed to recommend appropriate cannabinoid profiles to patients based on their illness and concomitant medication, and feed feedback anonymized back into a genetics database.
What comes after the conference?
The topics sketched in London will be further developed from a German perspective at the 7th Medicinal Cannabis Congress at Charité Berlin on May 28 and 29, 2026. Industry observers also expect the EMCDDA to publish its European Drug Report 2026 with additional DACH-relevant data on June 9 in Brussels.
Sollte die Cannabis-Telemedizin in Deutschland weiter eingeschränkt werden?
Sources: Business of Cannabis Live Report „Cannabis Europa London 2026 Key Insights Day 2“ from May 27, 2026, Cannabis Europa 2026 Speaker Directory, Hanf-Magazin research on Bird & Bird, Sanity Group, and Hystelica.
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