UK Medical Cannabis Patients Set to Pass 140,000 as Canadian Imports Surge

The UK's legal cannabis market is almost entirely private and almost entirely imported, and it is growing fast, according to industry analysts Prohibition Partners. Their June 2026 UK market update, reported by Cannabis Health News, expects more than 140,000 patients in 2026, up from about 100,000 in 2025.

Why it matters for patients

More supply and more clinics have pushed prices down and widened product choice, but they have also concentrated the market in a few large platforms: Prohibition Partners says 8 platforms issue about 80% of prescriptions. Separately, the Care Quality Commission has raised concerns about prescribing oversight at one online clinic.

The numbers

Other estimates are lower. Cannabis Health News separately reported about 95,000 patients prescribed by April 2026, with roughly 160 prescribers across some 40 clinics, and Business of Cannabis cited a figure of 124,144 patients. The figures differ because there is no official count of private patients.

What the analysts said

Alexander Khourdaji of Prohibition Partners told Cannabis Health News the UK is no longer a niche or fringe market and has become one of the fastest-growing medical cannabis markets anywhere in the world.

What happens next

The NHS still funds almost none of this: Business of Cannabis reported in September 2026 that fewer than five patients in England receive NHS-funded prescriptions for unlicensed cannabis medicines. The ACMD review of the 2018 rules, expected by summer 2026, had not been published by late September. For how to choose a clinic in a crowded market, see our guide to comparing UK cannabis clinics.