Welcome to my latest Weed Report video presentation. The article below is a condensed transcript; my video is a “deep dive” that provides additional details and several charts.

Germany is on the march again. This time, the country is on the cusp of conquering cannabis.

Germany already is the economic growth engine of Europe. Germany also is the Continent’s biggest market for marijuana. Now that a legalization bill has passed the Bundestag, the country is on track to become the biggest marijuana market on the planet.

Germany’s Bundestag (national parliament) on February 23 officially approved a bill to legalize marijuana nationwide. Two days after the cannabis legislation was considered by eight committees of the Bundestag, the full body voted 407-226 on final passage last Friday.

The legislation will make possession and home cultivation legal in Germany and authorize social clubs that distribute marijuana to members.

The bill legalizes possession by adults of up to 25 grams (nearly 1 ounce) of marijuana for recreational purposes and allows individuals to grow up to three plants on their own.

The bill this week heads to the Bundesrat, a separate legislative chamber that represents German states, but that’s just a formality. The Bundesrat can’t stop the reform from being enacted.

The legalization bill is scheduled to take effect April 1, but there’s a slight wrinkle. The Bundesrat might decide to refer the legislation to a mediation committee to address criminal justice-related implications of the law, which could mean a few months of additional discussion before the bill becomes law.

The coalition German government is composed of the Social Democratic Party, Alliance 90/The Greens, and the Free Democratic Party, an arrangement known as the “traffic light coalition.” The parties’ traditional colors, respectively red, green, and yellow, match the colors of a traffic light.

Marijuana usage is robust in Germany, across demographic groups. Medical marijuana has been legal in Germany since 2017. The new bill legalizes weed across the board, for medical as well as recreational use.

Cannabis companies that have expanded into Germany and Europe are well-positioned to take advantage of this legislative change.

Even before Germany legalized marijuana last week, sales projections for medical marijuana in Germany called for impressive multi-year growth. (See my video for charts that depict the latest marijuana revenue projections for Germany.)

Cannabis companies are scrambling to expand their German operations or launch new ones. We’re now seeing a frenzy to invest in the German cannabis industry.

German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach, who has for months been the government’s lead advocate of the cannabis legalization bill, said ahead of last Friday’s floor vote that the country is “fundamentally changing our cannabis control policy in order to combat the black market.”

The second goal, Lauterback asserted, “is better protection for children and young people.” Pointing to high youth use rates under the current law, he said that the legalization bill is an “urgently needed modernization of our cannabis policy.”

The research firm New Frontier Data recently examined the growth of illicit marijuana sales in Germany as a case study of the world’s growing black market for the substance. If federal legalization hadn’t occurred, illicit sales in Germany would have grown from $14.9 billion in 2023 to $16.6 billion in 2025 (USD).

Even though recreational pot had been banned in Germany, the country already is leading the European cannabis market in terms of size and growth. According to market research firm Prohibition Partners, over a million German patients will have access to medical cannabis by 2024, and the German medical market alone will be worth 7.7 billion euros by 2028.

Germany’s historic vote to legalize pot isn’t the final word; a complex series of regulations still need to be implemented. But the country’s action will serve as a catalyst for legalization in other countries throughout Europe. As markets get legalized, marijuana sales and profits grow.

Editor’s Note: The above trends make it clear that every portfolio should have exposure to companies in the cannabis sector. That’s why you should consider my trading service Marijuana Profit Alert.

Marijuana Profit Alert can help you make money from the investment bonanza in marijuana and other psychotropic drugs that were once illicit but are now entering the mainstream. Click here to learn more.

John Persinos is the editorial director of Investing Daily.

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This article previously appeared on Investing Daily.