The UK’s medical cannabis industry has nearly tripled in size since 2022, according to new Freedom of Information data offering the most comprehensive look into what is being prescribed in the UK to date.
FOI figures, secured by Prohibition Partners and analysed by Business of Cannabis, have provided in-depth figures on individual unlicensed cannabis based medicinal products (CBPMs) prescribed privately since 2022.
While the UK’s market is one of Europe’s biggest, reliable data on just how big is nearly impossible to find, with even the most informed industry insiders’ estimates having error margins of tens of thousands of patients.
This data offers a rare insight into the size of the market and the preferred strains and strengths of consumers, but it also shines a light on why data-backed analysis of the market is so difficult.
In the first of a series of deep dives in the UK market based on this data, we look into its rapid growth, the shift in dominance of popular strains, and the dramatic swing towards higher THC products.
To enquire about detailed datasets on the UK and beyond, contact Prohibition Partners here.
262% growth in two years
Despite these limitations, the cleaned dataset reveals remarkable growth. Total matched flower volume increased from 2.7m grams in 2022 to 5.25m grams in 2023, then to 9.8m grams in 2024.
This represents year-on-year growth of 94% between 2022 and 2023, followed by 87% growth between 2023 and 2024. Over the two years, matched volumes increased by 262%.
Early figures for 2025 show this growth trajectory continuing, with January and February alone exceeding one tonne of matched flower volume, suggesting growth has not yet peaked.
These figures point to both a significant growth in the patient population, but also larger average prescription sizes, indicating both market expansion and increased consumption among existing patients.
Product dominance shift
The early years of the UK private medical cannabis market were dominated by a single high-THC flower: Adven’s EMT-2 T20 (Cairo strain). Across the cleaned dataset, it accounts for roughly one-third of all dispensed flower, approximately 6.1 tonnes, peaking in 2023 at over 3.3 tonnes alone.
By 2024, however, a newer rival had usurped its position. Curaleaf’s Lavender Cake LCE T20 was effectively invisible in 2022, barely registering in 2023 with just 4 kilograms, then exploded to more than 3.5 tonnes in 2024. The first two months of 2025 saw a further 196 kilograms prescribed.
THC levels have reshaped the market
One of the most striking trends we’ve garnered from the cleaned data set is a dramatic shift towards higher potency cannabis.
While this is by no means unique to the UK, it’s worth noting that higher THC does not reliably provide greater analgesia, as discussed during last month’s Cannabis Health Symposium.
In 2022, most prescribed flower sat in the mid-THC range, with roughly 57% of matched volume between 18-22% THC and only 11% stronger than 22% THC.
By 2024, that dynamic had transformed. Products above 22% THC accounted for around one-third of all matched volume, and by the first two months of 2025, they made up almost half.
Mid-range THC products (10–22%) have lost massive amounts of market share as prescribers and patients gravitate toward stronger flowers, illuminating a structural shift in prescribing patterns towards higher-potency cannabis, rather than a simple scaling up of earlier product mixes.
Continue at: https://businessofcannabis.com/what-is-really-going-on-in-the-uks-medical-cannabis-market-new-2025-data-analysis/
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