873,000 patients: a portrait of cannabis in 2025

According to the Medical Cannabis Yearbook by the consultancy Kaya Mind, 873,111 Brazilians used cannabis-based products in 2025, growth of about 30% over the previous year. The market approached R$ 1 billion. Four in ten patients obtained the product through imports, a third through pharmacies and a quarter through patient associations.

What happened

The yearbook was released at the end of November 2025 and covered by Poder360. A year earlier, the same survey had counted about 672,000 patients. The main figures for 2025:

• 873,111 patients, about 30% more than in 2024;
• by access route: imports, 40.55% (about 354,000); pharmacies, 33.6% (about 293,000); associations, 25.85% (about 226,000);
• market estimated at about R$ 971 million;
• about 200,000 import requests expected in the year, an average of more than 500 a day;
• average price per bottle: R$ 679 at pharmacies and R$ 363 at associations;
• reach: more than 4,730 municipalities have recorded at least one dispensing since 2019;
• cultivation with court authorization: about 7,000 patients;
• research: 111 authorizations granted by Anvisa since 2015.

The figure that stands out most is not the growth. It is who prescribes: according to the yearbook, less than 1% of qualified professionals regularly prescribe cannabis, in a country with more than 635,000 doctors and 90,000 pharmacies.

Why it matters

The numbers tell a story of demand that moved faster than the structure. Almost 900,000 people is more than the population of many Brazilian state capitals. And the largest share still depends on imports, with prices in dollars and a procedure of its own.

The price difference between pharmacies and associations helps explain why associations grew so much, and why Anvisa decided in 2026 to create a specific regulatory environment for them. Dependence on imports helps explain the pressure that led the STJ, in 2024, to order the regulation of domestic cultivation.

But the most important number may be the smallest. If less than 1% of doctors prescribe regularly, most patients depend on a few professionals. This concentrates knowledge, makes consultations more expensive and leaves many people without guidance. The lack of training and quality information is the bottleneck that no resolution solves on its own.

One caution is in order: the number of patients is not a measure of efficacy. The data show how many people use these products, not how many benefit, or for what.

In Bairo's view

For Bairo Leandro Gonzalez Martinez, Kaya Mind's figures confirm the diagnosis at the root of Xperienc: there are many people looking for answers and little serious information available. In his reading, the bottleneck is not only regulatory. It is one of knowledge, of access to those who know and of language.

Bairo sees the prescriber figure as the most urgent point. For him, training professionals, bringing patients closer to specialists and organizing the evidence by grade, separating what is already known from what is still being studied, is as important as making the product cheaper. In his view, growth without criteria can turn into a fad, and medical cannabis deserves to be treated with the same rigor as any other field of medicine.

Where this meets the ecosystem

Xperienc Global Labs, founded by Bairo in London, proposes precisely a bridge across this bottleneck: teleconsultation with a clinical assistant validated by a professional and the Global Language translator, so that a Brazilian patient or doctor can hear a specialist from another country as a second clinical opinion, not a medical report. Xperienc's clinical partner, Hospital Granja Julieta, a separate company, also plans a training center for professionals.

The grading of evidence, condition by condition, is in The plant and the science. The numbers help to understand the landscape; the decision about your case belongs to a qualified professional.

Sources

• Kaya Mind, "Mais de 873 mil pacientes de cannabis no Brasil em 2025" (More than 873,000 cannabis patients in Brazil in 2025): kayamind.com
• Poder360, "Cannabis medicinal alcança 873 mil pacientes e quase R$ 1 bi no Brasil" (Medical cannabis reaches 873,000 patients and almost R$ 1 billion in Brazil), 11/28/2025: poder360.com.br
• Poder360, "Brasil atinge marca de 672 mil pacientes tratados com cannabis" (Brazil reaches 672,000 patients treated with cannabis), 12/01/2024: poder360.com.br
• Cannabis & Saúde, on the 2025 yearbook: cannabisesaude.com.br

Read also

• Cannabis associations and the Anvisa sandbox
• Decree 68,233: how São Paulo regulated cannabis in the SUS
• Colombia, exporter of medical cannabis