Licensing frameworks, permitted products, patient access, and legal status across jurisdictions.
Cannabis law determines who can legally produce, distribute, prescribe, and use cannabis — and it differs in every jurisdiction. Most regulated markets distinguish medical cannabis (prescription-only, held to pharmaceutical standards) from adult-use, CBD-only, and hemp frameworks, each with its own licensing regime. For operators, the threshold question in any market is the legal status of your specific activity — import, manufacture, distribution, or retail — because every downstream obligation (GMP, GACP, product registration) hangs off that answer.
Medical frameworks typically name a national regulator and a primary law, then layer sub-national variation on top: US states, German Bundesländer, and Swiss cantons can all add their own enforcement practice. Markets fall into clear tiers — active programs (Germany, UK, Australia), emerging frameworks, restricted regimes, and prohibition — and tracking amendments matters, because a single act like Germany's MedCanG (2024) can reset the rules for an entire market category overnight.