JournalJournal
Collin Johnson
Mary Jane Berlin turned ten this year, and the First Smoke of the Day crew came back for our second run at it. Europe's largest cannabis event ran June 11 through 14, 2026, at Messe Berlin, pulling more than 75,000 people and over 500 exhibitors through the halls at Hammarskjöldplatz. Thursday belonged to the B2B trade visitors. Friday through Sunday opened the doors to everyone else, with the expo floor, the conference stages, and a full festival lineup running side by side.
Our intrepid host Lance Harman, aka Blackleaf, walked the floor for all four days. Year one taught us the layout and the rhythm of the show. Year two let us skip the orientation and go straight to the people and the product. He came back with a notebook full of observations about where the global market sits right now, who is pushing it forward, and what Germany still has to build. Here is the recap.
Mary Jane started in 2016 with roughly 80 booths and 8,000 guests. Founders Nhung Nguyen and Duc Anh Dang built it out of Friedrichshain as a community gathering. A decade later it fills one of Germany's largest exhibition venues and outgrew Spannabis to become the biggest cannabis trade expo in Europe.
Germany's Cannabis Act took effect in April 2024. Cannabis social clubs started distributing product that November. By June 2026, operators showed up with real data and real operating history behind them, and you could feel that shift on the floor. The anniversary edition celebrated the culture, but it also functioned as a working trade show for a market that finally has something to trade.
The speaker roster reflected the same split. Voice of the Plant/Sherbinski’s founder Mario Guzman came through. Storz & Bickel founder Jürgen Bickel represented 25 years of hardware engineering. Culture, brand, and industry all shared the same building.
The biggest difference between Mary Jane and a US expo is who fills the room. "Europe's largest cannabis event brings out people who can't come to America," Lance said. "They end up representing their countries and their brands with their crews."
American events pull heavily from Canada and South America. Berlin pulls from everywhere across Europe. Different currencies. Different price structures. Different regulatory realities stacked on top of each other in the same aisle. That mix creates something you can't manufacture.
If you stay in the mix, you learn. Lance spent time talking with people from Moldova about what cannabis actually looks like on the ground there. Those conversations happen because Mary Jane puts everyone on the same floor at the same time. Talk to the people on the ground floor and you walk away with a real map of the continent.
The exhibitor list ran deep on seed banks. Plenty of white label breeders set up shop, and plenty of them are still dialing in their flower. But, there was still a handful of fire to be found, according to Lance.
"You get this massive mix of culture clash, high end and low end," Lance said. That range is the point. A booth pushing pharmaceutical-grade compliance software sits near a breeder selling packs out of a display case. Both belong there. It’s still just early in the game.
Lance came to Berlin looking for local collaborations and fresh hash. He also came to see which California brands were there collaborating and actively dropping in the European market. Watching guys like Scott from Wizard Trees and Ryan from Doja land and win overseas hits different than watching them win at home.
The clearest theme of the weekend: Cali genetics are everywhere now. Amsterdam is working with California cuts. Spain is working with California cuts. Berlin breeders are working with California cuts. Lance framed it as a renaissance in cannabis breeding, with California sitting at the center instead of the traditional landrace regions like Afghanistan or Hawaii.
There is a straightforward reason for it. California growers got decades to explore genetics with relatively little interference. That freedom let breeders chase stability and find winners without the law breathing down their necks at every turn. Rarely does one region's genetics travel this far.
Consistency drives the whole thing. "We're all outlaws, but the number one thing is creating consistency," Lance said. "You need that to actually have really consistent flower." Markets still operating underground struggle to hit a consistent crop, because the operations stay too small and too disrupted to repeat results. That’s the gap Europe is closing right now.
A few regions are further along, and it shows in the jar. The UK and Spain are producing some of the best fire in Europe, according to Lance. The problem is they’re still heavily achieving this in the traditional market, awaiting more wiggle room from legalization. Even though these markets are still primarily traditional, Lance was highlighting that they’re ahead of the curve on genetics when full legalization comes.
Germany, on the other hand, is younger in every sense of the term. The local market is still early, and most of what circulates traces back to imported genetics. Lance is honest about that, and he is also patient with it.
"It's just infancy in the market," he said. "I like seeing it because you get to see the growth happen."
His estimate is that Germany needs 10 to 15 years minimum to grow its own legs. That is not a knock. That is a timeline. California did not build its reputation in three years either.
Lance's favorite part of the trip had nothing to do with a booth. "When it pertains to Germany, my favorite part is seeing dudes out there thriving in the underground," he said. "They're finding a way, and they're helping prop up the need to bring legitimacy to the legal market."
That is how it always starts. Underground growers prove demand, prove quality, and prove that people want something better than what the regulated channel offers on day one. Then the legal market catches up because it has to.
Mary Jane accelerates that process. The show evolves every year. Everyone leaves, goes home, and makes changes based on what they saw. Then they come back and show the results. Coming back a second time made that obvious. We had a baseline to measure against, and the jump in scale, in professionalism, and in how many people showed up ready to do business was hard to miss. Lance expects coffee shops and dispensaries to open up across Germany within the next three to five years or less, and the trajectory supports him.
The longer goal is bigger. Free the plant, open the market the way alcohol operates, and get seeds and genetics into the right hands globally. When Germany, the UK, and Spain build real careers around cannabis, innovation and quality follow. That is the bet.
Berlin itself earned its own segment. German food culture delivered, and Lance is still thinking about one particular Döner. "I still dream of this Döner I got in Berlin," he said. He also made a point that stuck. Germany applies real precision to everything it builds. If the country brings that same precision to cannabis, the industry will get where it needs to go.
We ate our way across the city between expo days. Döner, currywurst, late night bakery runs, and a few surprises. Watch the full food vlog here:
Mary Jane Berlin works because it refuses to pick a lane. It runs as a trade show, a festival, a conference, and a family reunion at the same time, and none of those pieces cannibalize the others. American events keep talking about that format. Berlin keeps executing it.
The genetics story is the one worth watching. California cuts spreading across Europe is a compliment and a challenge at once. It proves how much value decades of unregulated exploration created. It also means European breeders are building on a foundation they did not lay themselves. That changes when local growers get enough time, enough legal room, and enough consistent harvests to develop their own winners. Give it a decade.
Until then, the growth is the story, and you only see growth if you keep showing up. Two trips in and the difference already reads clearly. Lance put it best: watching a market grow up in real time beats watching a finished one coast. We are rooting for Germany, and we are going for round three. Follow FSOTD for more updates directly from the culture.
Mary Jane Berlin returns June 3 through 6, 2027, at Messe Berlin. Images via Sensi Seeds and Mary Jane Berlin Instagram.
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