UK cannabis market snapshot: 20% of adults have used CBD

One is true of the global cannabis industry. Just when you think the light at the end of the tunnel is always just another train (ie at least a delay, if not a setback), there are glimmers of hope on the horizon. This is certainly true of the UK CBD market lately.

Here’s the latest zinger. According to a survey by an industry group, the Association for the Cannabinoid Industry (ACI), a fifth of UK adults have tried CBD flower or oil, and 58% of respondents overall believe it has health benefits.

Additionally, the other data collected from survey respondents was revealing, if not another indication that the UK CBD business is entering a whole new world. This starts with the fact (though unsurprising given current market dynamics) that a whopping 38% of respondents said they also buy their products online.

However, this is far from the only interesting recent development in the UK – and both these and a number of other developments are in part the strategic work of the ACI.

Beyond this fascinating snapshot of the market, the group has actively brought together senior members of the political class and recently commissioned a report calling on the government to take a more active leadership on reforms to ensure UK industry becomes a World class developed.

Why the UK cannabis market is so interesting

On the other side of the Brexit divide, the British theoretically have more regulatory space to embark on new avenues of cannabis reform much faster than their neighbors across the Channel. There are several ways this is true – and better yet, there is potential for rapid reform on both the medical and recreational sides. This has only become clear in recent weeks, when a UK parliamentary group proposed the complete abolition of the Novel Foods Regulation (at the same time their European counterparts continued to delay 19 pending applications).

On the actual product front, aside from the discussion of removing the need for specific and complicated regulation, this has been an interesting spring. The UK, the only one in Europe, has started to formalize its CBD market in a way unprecedented across the region (except perhaps in Switzerland right now, also outside the EU).

Here’s one of the biggies. For example, it is possible to advertise CBD products in a way that has never been seen before in Germany. Because the German Narcotics Act still covers CBD. This makes it very difficult to drive stakes into the ground (although the landscape is clearly shifting, albeit as treacherous as quicksand for legal reasons). In other countries, too, the entire discussion about online sales is still going through a vague and therefore often dangerous legal process.

On the other side of France, however, and it’s clear that the British are breaking out in at least some parts of the deal to break new ground for reform. This is of course true, although many and major complications still abound.

How CBD markets are driving the reform talk

Since 2018, there has been an ongoing strategic conversation in the UK on how best to advance the overall issue of full and definitive reform. Some have suggested that a “CBD strategy” might be one way to do this – namely all out of a political push for immediate change with THC percentages in excess of 0.03% (if not zero in the extract and edibles discussion ) throw off. This, combined with medicinal users who could be counted on to advocate for the legalization of both CBD and THC, was seen as the best way to move the needle.

Whether this is true is still unclear. The British medical market has come to a standstill, among other things due to the focus on an exclusive, privately insured segment of seriously ill people. There are thousands of legal German patients in a direct comparison (even if the system here is of course anything but perfect or even remotely what it should be).

In addition, there are also increasing calls from several influential parts of the country, ranging not just from police chiefs who now dare to stand up to the status quo, to the Mayor of London, and of course patient and industry associations, the well-heeled are and politically connected.

What is clear is that the legalization of cannabis, in all its multi-faceted glory, is proceeding in a new way in the UK, whichever segment ultimately pushes the needle into full reform. And despite the many icebergs that are far ahead, it is well on the way to mainstream acceptance by the majority of the population, who will also have access to it in one way or another.