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Denmark Reports No New Medical Cannabis Safety Concerns as Patient Numbers Rise
Denmark’s medicines regulator found no new safety concerns linked to medical cannabis in 2025 – despite the number of patients receiving prescriptions rising by more than half.
Denmark’s medicines regulator found no new safety concerns linked to medical cannabis in 2025 despite the number of patients receiving prescriptions rising by more than half.
The Danish Medicines Agency received three reports covering four suspected side effects during the year, according to its latest annual safety report.
Two reports involved suspected serious side effects and one involved a non-serious reaction. All three were submitted by doctors.
But after reviewing the cases, the agency said it had identified “no signals of safety problems” and found no reason to introduce additional measures to reduce risk.
Read the Danish Medicines Agency’s full report
Medical cannabis use rises
The findings come as use of medical cannabis continued to rise during the final year of Denmark’s pilot programme.
According to the Danish Medicines Agency, the number of patients collecting prescriptions increased by 54% in 2025, while the number of prescriptions collected rose by 64% compared with the previous year.
An English-language summary of the report published by Danish medical cannabis company Stenocare said 22,410 prescriptions were dispensed to 2,465 patients in 2025, compared with 13,665 prescriptions to 1,605 patients in 2024.
The pilot programme began in 2018 and was made permanent on 1 January 2026.
It gives doctors the option of prescribing certain cannabis products which are not authorised medicines and would otherwise not be legally available to patients in Denmark.
What do the safety figures mean?
The small number of reports does not mean only three patients experienced side effects or that medical cannabis has been shown to be risk-free.
The agency describes them as suspected side effects. In other words, a reaction has been reported as potentially linked to a product, but that does not prove medical cannabis caused it.
Stenocare’s summary said the regulator considers that side effects “might be underreported” and will continue reminding doctors of their reporting obligations.
The three reports related to patients receiving medical cannabis for neuropathic pain in two cases and appetite stimulation in one, according to Stenocare. The patients were aged between 21 and 82.
The company also said all the suspected reactions were already known from approved medicines containing cannabis.
No suspected reactions linked to manufacturing quality were identified, and the reports did not lead to additional measures to reduce risk.
The Danish Medicines Agency also cautions more broadly that relatively few high-quality studies have examined the effects and side effects of cannabis in humans.
It says there is therefore still limited evidence about both the benefits and potential side effects of medical cannabis.
The regulator will continue monitoring suspected side effects following the move to a permanent medical cannabis programme.
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