Leafly has Unique Expansion Plans for the German Medical Marijuana System

My favorite part of helping organize conferences like the International Cannabis Business Conference is learning from cutting edge activists, entrepreneurs and businesses from around the world. One of my biggest goals for the ICBC in Berlin, which has attendees from more than 35 countries in attendance, is highlighting the German medical cannabis provision that covers patients’ medicinal marijuana thru insurance coverage.

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to catch up with Leafly’s Linn Baumgardt who was literally on her way to Berlin. Linn is speaking on Wednesday, April 12th, at noon on the ICBC’s Consumer and Tech Branding Panel. Leafly, of course, has been a leader in helping patients and consumers learn about cannabis strains and dispensaries around the world and it was a pleasure learning a bit more about the company’s plans for Germany.

Anthony Johnson: What is your position and duties with Leafly?

Linn Baumgardt: I’m the Director of Strategic Initiatives. I’m responsible for the expansion of Leafly into Germany, a burgeoning medical cannabis country that is helping the global movement to legalize medical cannabis in Europe, and around the world.

What are Leafly’s plans for the Germany expansion?

Leafly.com is available in every country. However, we will be launching Leafly.de in May 2017. Leafly.de will look and function differently from the US website, as there are currently no dispensaries in Germany.

Medical cannabis is a new topic to many Germans, and Leafly.de will serve as a competent and trustworthy informational resource for German speaking patients, doctors, pharmacists, and adults who are interested in learning more about the topic.

Germany’s plan is to start having medical cannabis covered by health insurance, do you think that this would be a good approach for other countries?

It will be interesting to see how this will be implemented by doctors and health insurers. Germany’s health insurers may cover medical cannabis prescriptions for the “seriously ill” as stated in the new law. Rather than creating a new legal category for cannabis (the way US states and Canada are doing it,) Germany is modifying their narcotics prescription medication law to include cannabis. If other countries go down the same path as Germany, it would make sense for them to look at what is working in the German system and adapt similar practices accordingly.

 Have you heard good feedback from patients and customers about Leafly’s services?

One of the reasons we are launching Leafly.de is that we are hearing of an overwhelming need for information from German patients, medical practitioners, media, and regulators. While there are activist groups in Germany that have been very passionate and vocal about the topic for a long time, for mainstream Germans this is new territory. We are very excited to launch Leafly.de and get feedback on what our site visitors like and what they would like us to add on and develop.