ArticleDeutsches Arzteblatt international2025
Cannabis Consumption Before and After Partial Legalization in Germany: Early Trends, Consumption Patterns, and Motives.
Article in Deutsches Arzteblatt international, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- Increase in Cannabis-Specific Hospital Admissions After Partial Legalization in Germany: A Nationwide Time-Series Analysis.Deutsches Arzteblatt international · 2026Observational
- [Effects of the cannabis act on supply channels, attitudes, and perceptions of users].Bundesgesundheitsblatt, Gesundheitsforschung, Gesundheitsschutz · 2026Article
- Cannabis-Related Hospitalizations Before and After Partial Legalization: An Analysis From Five Psychiatric Clinics in the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area.Deutsches Arzteblatt international · 2026Article
- Who is at risk? Core mental health symptoms and problematic cannabis use in Germany.Journal of cannabis research · 2026Article
- Post-legalization rise in German medical cannabis interest: evidence from Google trends as surrogate marker.Journal of cannabis research · 2026Article
- One year after partial legalisation in Germany: Trends in cannabis use among young people between 2008 and 2025.Journal of health monitoring · 2026Article
- Psychoactive Substance Use in Germany: Findings From the Epidemiological Survey of Substance Abuse (ESA) in 2024.Deutsches Arzteblatt international · 2025Article
- Cannabis Consumption Before and After Partial Legalization in Germany: Early Trends, Consumption Patterns, and Motives.Deutsches Arzteblatt international · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundGermany experienced a steady rise in the prevalence of past-12-months cannabis use from 2012 to 2021. In 2024, cannabis was partially legalized for recreational use. Against this background, it is important to systematically examine consumption patterns in the early phase after legalization.
methodsData are from the 2012 (n2012 = 9084), 2015 (n2015 = 9204), 2018 (n2018 = 9267), 2021 (n2021 = 9046), and 2024 (n2024 = 7534) waves of the Epidemiological Survey of Substance Abuse (ESA), a repeated cross-sectional survey of Germanspeaking adults in private households.
resultsThe prevalence of past 12-month cannabis use rose steadily from 4.6% in 2012 to 8.8% in 2021. The prevalence in 2024 was 9.8%, an additional increase compared to 2021, but the difference is not statistically significant. Most cannabis users consumed marijuana (92.3%), predominantly in the form of joints (88.6%). One-quarter of them (25.7%) also belonged to a cannabis social club. The most frequently stated motivation for using cannabis was "to get high or have fun" (66.8%), followed by "to reduce stress or relax" (61.3%).
conclusionIn the early post-legalization period, there was a small, non-significant increase in the prevalence of cannabis use in Germany compared with 2021. Given the legalization is very recent, it is too soon to observe any clear effect.
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