Germany’s Cannabis Act, which took effect on April 1, 2024, lets adults 18 and older possess, grow, and obtain cannabis within tightly drawn limits, while commercial retail sales stay prohibited for now. The law legalized personal use and cooperative cultivation through nonprofit social clubs, kept minors entirely out of the framework, and paired legalization with strict rules on where you can consume and how much THC drivers can have in their blood. Everything below is what an adult living in or visiting Germany actually needs to know to stay on the right side of the law.
How Much Cannabis You Can Possess
Adults 18 and older can carry up to 25 grams of dried cannabis in public and store up to 50 grams at home.1Federal Ministry of Health. Frequently Asked Questions on the Cannabis Act The limits are per person, so two adults sharing a home can keep two separate 50-gram allotments. Strain and potency do not change the calculation; the weight is what matters.
Anyone under 18 cannot legally possess any amount. Enforcement is weight-based and precise, and the buffer between an administrative fine and a criminal charge is narrow, so treating 25 grams as a rough guideline rather than a hard ceiling is a bad bet.
Growing Cannabis at Home
Every adult can grow up to three flowering plants at a time in their primary residence.1Federal Ministry of Health. Frequently Asked Questions on the Cannabis Act Seeds and cuttings are legal to buy and possess, including from online retailers within the EU. The plants must be kept in a secure area that children and unauthorized people cannot access, which in practice means a locked room, grow tent, or cabinet if minors live in or visit the home.
The 50-gram home storage cap applies to harvested material. If a harvest produces more than 50 grams, the excess has to be destroyed. Keeping a rough log of plant count and harvest weight is worth the effort; proving you stayed within bounds is far easier with records than without.
Getting Cannabis Through a Social Club
Rather than dispensaries, Germany allows cannabis cultivation associations (Anbauvereinigungen), commonly called social clubs. These are registered nonprofits that grow cannabis collectively and distribute it to members. You cannot walk in and buy anything as a stranger; you have to join.
Each club is capped at 500 members. Everyone must be at least 18 and have lived in Germany for at least six months.1Federal Ministry of Health. Frequently Asked Questions on the Cannabis Act You can only belong to one club at a time, which stops members from stacking distribution allowances.
How much a club can give you depends on your age:
- Members 21 and older can receive up to 25 grams per day and 50 grams per month, plus up to 7 seeds or 5 cuttings per month for home growing.
- Members 18 to 20 are capped at 30 grams per month, and the cannabis they receive cannot exceed 10 percent THC.
Consumption inside a club and within sight of its entrance is banned, so the clubs cannot function as lounges. Advertising and sponsorship are also prohibited across the board.
Where You Can and Cannot Consume
Possessing cannabis and using it in public are different questions. The law creates protection zones around places where children are likely to be present. Consumption is banned within sight of schools, daycare centers, playgrounds, youth facilities, and public sports grounds. You are presumed “within sight” if you are closer than 100 meters to the entrance.1Federal Ministry of Health. Frequently Asked Questions on the Cannabis Act
Pedestrian zones in city centers have a time rule: no cannabis consumption between 7:00 AM and 8:00 PM.1Federal Ministry of Health. Frequently Asked Questions on the Cannabis Act Consuming cannabis in the immediate presence of anyone under 18 is banned everywhere, at any hour, in any setting. Military installations and certain government properties maintain their own bans, and local authorities can add restricted areas if they consider it necessary for public safety.
Driving After Cannabis Use
This is where legal users get into the most trouble. The Cannabis Act’s companion reform to the Road Traffic Act set a legal THC threshold for drivers at 3.5 nanograms per milliliter of blood serum, effective August 2024.2PubMed. Partial Cannabis Legalization and the Increase of the THC Threshold in Road Traffic The previous limit was 1.0 ng/mL, low enough that even infrequent users could test positive days after using.
Going over 3.5 ng/mL brings a €500 fine and a one-month license suspension for a first offense. Mixing cannabis and alcohol behind the wheel is treated more seriously, with fines starting at €1,000. Novice drivers and anyone under 21 face zero tolerance. Roadside blood testing is routine, so the timing of when you drive after consuming matters as much as whether the cannabis itself was legal.
Crossing the Border With Cannabis
Legalization stops at Germany’s border. Bringing cannabis into or out of the country is illegal, even when the destination is another EU or Schengen state where cannabis is also legal or decriminalized. Entering Germany with cannabis, even an amount under 25 grams, counts as illegal import under federal law.3Zoll (German Customs). Medicinal Products and Narcotics
The one exception is for medical cannabis patients traveling within the Schengen area. Patients may carry prescribed cannabis for trips of up to 30 days, but only with an Article 75 Schengen certificate completed by the prescribing doctor and certified by the relevant regional health authority before departure.3Zoll (German Customs). Medicinal Products and Narcotics Without that paperwork, the transport is treated as an illegal narcotics offense regardless of where you are headed.
Fines and When It Becomes a Crime
The Cannabis Act converted many former criminal offenses into administrative infractions, but the consequences are not trivial. The penalty structure uses buffer zones. Possessing between 25 and 30 grams in public, or between 50 and 60 grams at home, is an administrative violation. Going past those buffers crosses into criminal territory.1Federal Ministry of Health. Frequently Asked Questions on the Cannabis Act
Administrative fines can reach €30,000 for serious violations, including consuming cannabis inside a protection zone, using in front of a minor, or repeatedly exceeding possession limits. Smaller infractions carry proportionally smaller fines. Authorities can confiscate cannabis found above the legal limits or grown in unsecured conditions, and they retain the right to inspect cultivation associations for compliance with membership caps, nonprofit rules, and distribution records.
The gap between fine and prosecution is narrow. Someone caught at 29 grams in public gets a fine; someone at 35 grams could face charges.
Old Convictions and Expungement
Because the law is retroactive, people convicted of cannabis offenses that are no longer criminal can have their records expunged or their sentences reduced. Courts have been reviewing past convictions since the law took effect. Roughly 216,000 had been reviewed by early 2025, with about 10,000 still pending.
Most expungements involve fines for possession or cultivation of small amounts, and those cases move quickly. Mixed convictions, where cannabis was only one part of a broader sentence, take longer because a judge has to recalculate the sentence with the cannabis portion removed. Anyone with an old conviction that might qualify is better off contacting a defense attorney familiar with the amnesty provisions than waiting for the system to catch up.
Medical Cannabis Sits in a Separate Track
The rules above apply to personal-use cannabis. Medical cannabis is governed by a separate law, the MedCanG, which the Cannabis Act also created. Under the MedCanG, doctors can prescribe medical cannabis without tying it to a specific diagnosis, and since October 2024, doctors with certain additional qualifications can prescribe without prior approval from the patient’s statutory health insurance fund.1Federal Ministry of Health. Frequently Asked Questions on the Cannabis Act For seriously ill patients whose conventional treatments have failed, insurance coverage remains available through the standard reimbursement process. The possession and social-club rules do not apply to medically prescribed cannabis.
Commercial Sales and What Might Change
The original law envisioned a second pillar: commercial retail pilot projects in select cities, with licensed shops selling cannabis under scientific oversight. As of mid-2025, no commercial pilot had received full federal approval. Around 49 municipal applications, including from Berlin, Frankfurt, and Hanover, had been submitted to the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (BLE), but finalized rules and formal approvals kept slipping. First legal pilot sales, if they happen at all, are not expected before 2026.
The law’s future is also uncertain. The coalition that passed it collapsed in late 2024, and the current CDU/SPD-led government pledged an “open-ended evaluation” of the framework. The CDU has historically opposed legalization; the SPD has said it does not support rolling the law back. As of 2026, the Cannabis Act remains fully in effect with no formal amendments, though the evaluation could produce tighter restrictions or changes to the social-club model depending on its findings.