Alex Kwon, co -founder and executive director of the Hardware Manufacturer Activate Vaporizer based in California, began selling its THC oil vaper technology to cannabis companies in the United Kingdom about two years ago.
“We start entering the European market, but now we wear a bathing suit on and walk to the belly,” says Kwon, 40, co -founder of the company in 2018. “We will soon immerse ourselves in it.”
Active, which according to Forbes It generates more than 100 million dollars in annual revenues, it sells vaporizers manufactured with oil to some of the most important cannabis companies in the United States, such as Trulieve, Green Thumb Industries and Curaleaf. A few years ago, it did not operate in Europe. Today, more than 5 % of its income comes from cannabis companies of the United Kingdom, which legalized medicinal marijuana in 2018, and Germany, which legalized its medicinal use in 2017 and opened a limited recreational market in 2024. Kwon is currently negotiating an agreement with an EU brand that would further expand the European Active business. “Europe could easily reach 20 % of our sales,” he says.
Active expansion outside the United States is something that Kwon is not taken lightly. The EU, where about 25 countries have some type of legalization or decriminalization of cannabis, is about to become a market of 50 billion dollars (annual sales) if the reform extends throughout the continent, according to Whitney Economics. And Kwon wants Active to be at the forefront of this new and flourishing cannabis industry.
“I think Europe is the battlefield where cannabis will win: it is the gateway to the rest of the world,” says Kwon.
Legalization of cannabis in Europe
It is projected that the US cannabis market grows of 32,000 million dollars in annual sales to approximately 46,000 million dollars in three years, a growth rate of 44 %, according to the BDSA data firm. However, the EU is expected to grow 115 % during the same period. And while cannabis companies in the United States cannot transport products through state borders, EU companies can cultivate crop in a country and export products to the entire continent.
For now, the EU cannabis market is small. This year’s annual sales are expected to reach 1.2 billion dollars, according to an upcoming Prohibition Partners report. It is projected that it reaches 2.6 billion dollars in 2028 and 6,000 million dollars in annual sales within a decade, or an increase of more than 400% compared to this year. Germany is expected, which is the largest economy in the EU and the largest legal marijuana industry in the continent with around 500 million dollars in sales last year, it generates just under 1,000 million dollars in sales in the late 2025. The United Kingdom, which has not been part of the EU since Brexit in 2020, currently has a medicinal market with around 255 million dollars in annual sales. The Netherlands and Switzerland launched pilot programs to test recreational marijuana, while Poland, the Czech Republic and other countries have launched medical programs. Malta and Luxembourg currently have programs for use for adults and France has also proposed medical legalization measures.
Compared to the United States, where 38 states have some form of legalization that generated 32 billion dollars in annual sales of legal cannabis last year, the Cannabis market of Europe is approximate Americans invest hundreds of millions of dollars in the EU.
Beau Whitney, founder of the Cannabis Whitney Economics data company, states that Europe is an emerging market too important to ignore it. Although the United States has had a great advantage (California first legalized medicinal marijuana in 1996), the European market offers government collaboration and financial incentives that the United States does not have. (Entry barriers to Europe are high; companies must have facilities with EU GMP certification, but that is positive for investors because it reduces potential competition. Some countries only allow cannabis pharmaceutical products). In the United States, only 27 % of cannabis companies are profitable, weighed by the federal prohibition, excessive regulation and punitive taxes at the state and local level. Although former president Joe Biden launched a federal review to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug (it is currently in the same category as heroin and LSD), the United States Drug Control Administration has delayed the review. And now, with President Donald Trump in the White House, the reform has stopped, although he backed changes to the laws on marijuana of the country during the electoral campaign.
“The US market is fragmented and dysfunctional,” says Whitney. “From an investment perspective, it is high risk and low profitability, which is a disaster.”
Instead, countries like Germany have adopted practical approaches for legalization and have integrated it into their current medical system. In the United Kingdom and Germany, patients go to their head doctor to obtain marijuana recipes, which can be supplied in traditional pharmacies or through online pharmacies that deliver the cannabis at home by mail.
Curaleaf, based in Massachusetts, is currently the largest American company in Europe. The company expanded to the United Kingdom and the EU in 2021 by acquiring Emmac Life Sciences, a medical marijuana company integrated vertically with cultivation, manufacturing and distribution centers in Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom, for 286 million dollars: 50 million in cash and 17.5 million Curaleaf shares.
Boris Jordan, founder and executive director of Curaleaf, said during a gain call after the acquisition of Emmac that the European market “will eventually rival the US. UU.”
Since then, Emmac has been integrated into the International Curaleaf strategy, becoming Curaleaf International. And as for the growth of income, the international growth of curaleaf eclipses its operation in the United States. Last year, Curaleaf International generated 105 million dollars in revenue, an increase of 72 % compared to 2023, when it generated 61 million dollars. In the United States, Curaleaf generated 1200 million dollars in 2024, 1000 % more than its European division, but last year’s revenues decreased slightly with respect to the 1300 million dollars of 2023.
Juan Pablo Martínez, executive director of Curaleaf International, believes that Jordan’s prediction is becoming quickly. “The total potential market is there, growth rates are there, and I trust that the market will grow,” says Martínez.
Meanwhile, Cookies, the cult brand of worship co -founded by the musician and entrepreneur Berner, sells cannabis in the United Kingdom, Germany, Israel and Thailand, and is about to launch its sales in Australia. Working with a licensing model, Cookies has agreements with three companies that cultivate their varieties in Portugal, Germany and Canada.
Parker Berling, president of Cookies, states that, at first, international expansion was part of its strategy to be the first American brand in all countries where marijuana is legal. Now, “the international sector is the one that grows the most in our company,” says Berling. “We have been selling internationally for years, but in recent months and until the end of this year we are seeing that it has become a fundamental part of our business.”
Will Muccke, co -founder of Artemis Growth Partners, a private capital firm based in London specialized in marijuana and that manages almost 400 million dollars in assets, is betting strongly on Europe. Muccke states that Artemis, who has invested $ 200 million in American cannabis companies since 2018, no longer actively seeks to invest in the North American market. Artemis has invested about 25 million dollars in European companies since 2022, including Valcon, a dance company for cannabis extraction, and Muccke states that he sees the opportunity to invest up to 50 million dollars more in the EU.
“Our (European strategy) is in the dog’s tail right now, but the dog is wiggling,” he says. “He’s sweeping.”
Of course, not everyone is optimistic about Europe. Kristoffer Inton, an analyst at Morningstar who covers cannabis companies, affirms that the great interest of US companies, and especially from Canadians, who have legal authorization to export marijuana to the EU, is unsustainable.
“The perspectives of international medicinal marijuana are promising, but it is also a place where those who fight see it as a blessing,” says Inton. “If everyone sees it as a blessing, it probably will not be for anyone.”
After all, the industry has already heard a similar promise. When Canada legalized cannabis at the federal level in 2019, investors flooded the market with capital under the premise that Canada could supply its local market, that of the United States and the World Cup. While the reform has stagnated in the United States, Canadian operators were affected by an excess supply, the price per kilo of cannabis collapsed and companies have fought to survive since then. The same could happen in Europe, but with 745 million inhabitants, a huge amount of marijuana would be needed to collapse the market.
This article was originally published by Forbes Us.
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