Behind thick steel doors in a high-security facility nestled in Bavaria, Germany, a quiet revolution is blooming. Inside, workers in surgical gear carefully trim dried cannabis flowers—part of a booming industry that’s reshaping German healthcare and challenging long-held legal norms.
This is Cantourage, a Berlin-based pharmaceutical company making headlines with its meteoric rise. From Jamaican-grown buds to New Zealand extracts, the firm sources medical cannabis from across the globe, and its revenues speak volumes: €51.4 million in 2024, up 118% from the year before.
Their mission? To bring safe, certified cannabis treatments to patients suffering from chronic pain, epilepsy, insomnia, cancer-related symptoms and more.
“We are committed to the highest safety standards—for our employees as well as for our products,” says CEO Philip Schetter, who proudly oversees operations from a vault-like room where cannabis stocks are secured like gold.
Not Just “Getting High”: The Medicine Behind the Movement
Cannabis has been legal in Germany for medical use since 2017, but recent legal reforms have widened access dramatically. Since the government loosened restrictions in 2024, pharmacies have seen a surge in prescriptions—up more than 1,000% in some months, according to health platform Bloomwell.
These are not random strains from the street. Cantourage ensures every product is tested in labs, free from contaminants, and precisely dosed.
“On the black market, you don’t know what you’re getting,” says Schetter. “It might not even be cannabis.”
With names like “Frosted Cookies,” “Lemon Berry Candy,” and “Chemdawg,” Cantourage’s offerings sound more like a dessert menu than medication. But there’s science behind the branding. Each product is tied to specific strains, cannabinoid profiles, and therapeutic effects—building trust with patients while quietly redefining pharmaceutical marketing.
“We’re not a classic pharma company. We’re young, creative, and sometimes the line between medicinal and recreational is blurred,” Schetter explains.
Politics and Pushback
The legalization wave hasn’t gone unnoticed—or unchallenged. Conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Bavarian premier Markus Söder have called for a rollback, branding the reform a “shame for the country.” But their coalition government has opted for an open-ended review rather than immediate reversal.
Despite the political tension, Cantourage remains confident.
“We’re a pharmaceutical company. We make medicine and deliver it to chemists,” Schetter says. Even if parts of the law are reversed, the company’s core business—regulated, prescribed medical cannabis—would remain untouched.
In fact, he’s hopeful the review may push boundaries even further, moving Germany from partial to full legalisation.
For readers interested in the growing role of cannabis in modern medicine, explore our coverage on how medical marijuana is being studied as a treatment for sleep apnea in Minnesota here, the latest 2025 guidelines for cannabis use in cancer care here, and groundbreaking research on cannabis for sedation and symptom relief in cancer patientshere.
