Cannabis Law and Access in Greece

Greece overhauled its cannabis laws faster than most people realise

In 2017, Greece legalised the cultivation and export of medical cannabis. By 2019, it had extended that framework to allow domestic patient access. For a country that had treated cannabis possession with fairly rigid criminal penalties just a few years earlier, the legislative pivot was sharp. I noticed the timeline when I was cross-referencing EU member-state reforms for a piece on international scheduling divergence , Greece moved quicker than Germany did at that point, which surprised me.

This article covers the Greek legal framework as it stands: what's permitted, what's prohibited, how patient access works, and , for Australian readers , why none of this maps directly onto what the TGA does here at home.

The legislative backbone

Greece's cannabis reform rests on two main instruments. Law 4523/2018 formally opened the country to licensed cannabis cultivation for medical and scientific purposes, permitting export to other EU nations. Presidential Decree 36/2019 then operationalised the framework for domestic patient access, placing medical cannabis products within the Greek national medicines regulatory structure under the National Organisation for Medicines (EOF; Εθνικός Οργανισμός Φαρμάκων).

On the personal-use side, Law 4139/2013 had already decriminalised possession of small quantities for personal use. "Decriminalised" in the Greek context means a first-time offender found with a small amount may receive a court order for treatment rather than a criminal conviction, but it does not mean possession is legal. This is a distinction worth being precise about. The substance remains a controlled item; the enforcement and sentencing response changed, not the underlying prohibition.

Recreational use, cultivation for personal use, and supply outside the licensed medical framework remain criminal offences under Greek law.

Medical cannabis: who can access it and how

Greek patients can access medical cannabis products through the national health system via a physician prescription, subject to EOF oversight. Products must meet pharmaceutical-grade standards, including what the EU broadly frames as Good Manufacturing Practice, the same quality baseline you see referenced in Australian TGA guidance around Good Manufacturing Practice.

Prescribed products in Greece have included oils and other standardised preparations containing tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and/or cannabidiol (CBD) at specified concentrations. The prescribing physician operates within EOF-approved categories. Products are dispensed through licensed pharmacies.

One structural note: Greece does not have a direct equivalent to Australia's Special Access Scheme or Authorised Prescriber pathway; the Greek system routes through national pharmaceutical approval processes rather than the individual-patient unregistered-goods mechanisms that characterise the Australian model. Australian readers familiar with how the Special Access Scheme or Authorised Prescriber framework operates will notice that difference immediately. The Australian system was built around providing access to products not listed on the ARTG; Greece's medical cannabis pathway integrates into standard pharmaceutical dispensing once a product is approved.

CBD specifically: a complicated story in the EU

Across the European Union, CBD's regulatory status has been genuinely messy. The European Court of Justice ruled in November 2020 (the Kanavape case, C-663/18) that CBD extracted from the whole cannabis plant cannot be classified as a narcotic under EU law if it contains no or negligible THC. That ruling had ripple effects across member states, including Greece.

In practice, low-THC CBD products, oils, cosmetics, food supplements, exist in a grey zone in many EU countries. Greece has allowed some low-THC hemp-derived products to be sold, but the regulatory categorisation (medicine vs. food supplement vs. cosmetic) determines what claims can be made and how the product must be licensed. This remains an evolving area. EOF continues to issue guidance as EU-level frameworks settle.

For readers interested in how CBD's pharmacology is understood at a molecular level, our glossary entry on cannabidiol covers the compound's classification and receptor interactions; including its relationship with the endocannabinoid system.

The cultivation and export industry

Greece positioned itself early as a significant cannabis cultivation hub within the EU. The country's climate, particularly in regions like the Peloponnese and parts of central Greece, is well-suited to outdoor cultivation, and licensing for cultivation was extended to both domestic companies and foreign-capital joint ventures.

Cultivation licences are issued by the Greek Ministry of Rural Development and Food in coordination with EOF, and cultivators must meet strict security, traceability, and quality requirements. Finished product destined for pharmaceutical use must pass through GMP-certified processing.

The export market was the initial economic rationale. Germany, which until recently had the largest medical cannabis patient population in the EU, was a key target market. Whether that rationale has fully delivered for Greek operators is a separate question; and honestly, from what I've read of the EU wholesale cannabis market, margins have been harder to find than the early projections suggested.

Industrial hemp: the lower-THC end

Greece also permits the cultivation of industrial hemp under EU regulations, with EU member states required to use varieties listed in the EU's Common Catalogue with THC content not exceeding 0.2% (soon transitioning to 0.3% under updated EU rules). Hemp cultivation for fibre, seed, and certain extract uses has a long history in parts of northern Greece.

Hemp-derived extracts contain a range of minor cannabinoids alongside CBD. Depending on extraction and processing methods, products may be characterised as full-spectrum, broad-spectrum, or isolate, terms that refer to how much of the plant's original cannabinoid and terpene profile is retained. Whether the so-called entourage effect has pharmacological significance in humans is still being actively debated in the literature; I'd be cautious about treating it as settled science.

What this means for Australian travellers and researchers

Australian law does not recognise foreign medical cannabis prescriptions. A Schedule 8 controlled drug prescription from a Greek physician carries no legal weight under the Australian Poisons Standard. An Australian travelling to Greece with cannabis-derived medicine, including an Australian-prescribed product; faces Greek import rules, not Australian ones. And an Australian returning from Greece with any cannabis product faces Australian Border Force and the full weight of Australian import law regardless of what was lawful at the point of origin.

I raise this not to be alarmist but because the question comes up. International legal reform does not create portability. Australia's Schedule 8 (Controlled Drug) classification for THC-containing cannabis products is a domestic instrument; it neither tracks nor defers to what other jurisdictions do.

For researchers, the Greek framework is interesting partly because it demonstrates a different regulatory architecture, pharmaceutical-integration rather than a special-access overlay, and partly because Greek cultivation data will eventually feed into EU-wide quality and pharmacokinetics research. How cannabinoids are absorbed and processed in the body, which is covered in our entry on pharmacokinetics, is an area where standardised pharmaceutical-grade products make research considerably more reproducible.

I was reading through some of this documentation last Saturday morning; Trevor the sourdough starter was doing his thing on the bench, I had a road ride planned for the afternoon, and somehow I ended up three hours into Greek EOF regulatory notices. Occupational hazard.

The short version for Australian readers

Greece has a functioning medical cannabis programme with pharmaceutical-grade product standards, physician prescribing, and pharmacy dispensing. Personal possession of small amounts has been decriminalised (not legalised). Recreational use and unlicensed supply remain criminal offences. The country is an active EU cannabis cultivator and exporter.

None of this changes Australian law for Australian residents. If you are an Australian patient seeking access to cannabis-based medicines, that pathway runs through the TGA, either via the Special Access Scheme, the Authorised Prescriber pathway, or products listed on the ARTG. A conversation with a registered medical practitioner is the starting point.

Sources

• National Organisation for Medicines (EOF), Εθνικός Οργανισμός Φαρμάκων
• Cannabis policy; European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA)
• Guidance on access to unapproved therapeutic goods, TGA, Australian Government
• Greece Drug Report 2023, EMCDDA

, Marcus Hale, Regulatory researcher; TGA & access law