Cannabis is big business and top-secret indoor farms across Australia are scaling up to capitalise on surging demand. Global legal cannabis spending reached more than $56 billion in 2022 and is set to reach $153 billion by 2027, according to market analyst Euromonitor International.
While most of the growth has been driven by "adult-use" consumers in the United States, meaning those who buy without a prescription, Australian companies have set their sights on a new wave of medicinal users — Europeans.
Across the globe, the plant's legality generally falls into five categories: illegal, decriminalised, medicinal use legalised, recreational use legalised and recreational use commercialised. Most of Asia and Africa are on the stricter end of the scale.
Canada and about half the US are on the commercial end, while Australia and most of Europe are somewhere in the middle. Europe is currently the centre of attention when it comes to the global medicinal market and Germany leads the way. The country accounted for $621 million of the total $821 million in sales on the European continent in 2023
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