Cannabis: German growers celebrate as hemp is legalized – DW – 03/22/2024
Cannabis: German growers celebrate as hemp is legalized – DW – 03/22/2024
Grass, weed, cannabis: Smoking dope has become legal in Germany. A government plan to liberalize rules on recreational cannabis has cleared its final parliamentary hurdle, Who will benefit financially — and who won't.
Legalized cannabis is a great step in decriminalizing a lot of citizens.
I can't believe that police don't want to legalize drugs.
It creates a framework for the police to see the flow of drugs through their society in a plain and open form. And from their they can start to pull apart the illegal black market that will always exist.
When it comes to Cannabis legalisation the pros clearly outweigh the cons in my opinion. I wouldn't necessarily give such a blanket statement concerning other drugs.
Though I see the benefit of not criminalising people for the possession of small amounts of other drugs for personal use ("Eigenbedarf") not all substances are as "harmless" as Cannabis. Some other substances can act as gateway drugs - something that Cannabis has been accused of but which has been invalidated by studies - and put people at a greater risk of addiction and lasting health damages.
They fucked up by not legislating a model for dispensaries or another distribution model outside of medical. A quick look at the money being made on recreational cannabis dispensary taxes in California, Washington and Colorado should have provided impetus for the government here to get in on the action. So much money being left on the table. Alas, Germany continues to live in the 20th century with its glacial approach to modernizing laws and infrastructure for the 21st century.
They - being the coalition - had and still have a problem with finding a solution that won't get them in trouble with EU laws.
They also want to establish another distribution system but early on other EU states were promising to sue Germany for breach of EU laws when the first models of sale were discussed.
On the other hand the legalisation of Cannabis is one of the promises made to voters (also by FDP who seem to have swayed a lot of voters with such a promise) that the coalition needed to fulfill this promise at least partially before the new election. At the moment the opposition (CDU/CSU as the party that's still a democratic option and the AfD which might get enough votes to gain influence) is leading in polls and they're against legalisation.
Between a rock and a hard place they chose to bring only 'the first pillar' of their planned law and they are still trying to find a way to install a distribution system as 'the second pillar'.
I found a FAQ page but it's german only.
https://www.bundesgesundheitsministerium.de/themen/cannabis/faq-cannabisgesetz.html
Mit dem Cannabisgesetz (kurz: CanG) wird der private Eigenanbau durch Erwachsene zum Eigenkonsum sowie der gemeinschaftliche, nicht-gewerbliche Eigenanbau von Cannabis in Anbauvereinigungen legalisiert. Diese Grundsatzentscheidung ist im Eckpunktepapier vom 12. April 2023 für ein 2-Säulen-Modell zur kontrollierte Abgabe von Genusscannabis an Erwachsene festgehalten.
Das 2-Säulen-Modell entwickelt die Eckpunkte der Bundesregierung zur Einführung einer kontrollierten Weitergabe von Cannabis an Erwachsene vom 26. Oktober 2022 weiter. Es sieht nunmehr zwei Säulen vor:
Säule 1 ermöglicht den privaten Eigenanbau durch Erwachsene zum Eigenkonsum sowie den gemeinschaftlichen, nicht-gewerblichen Eigenanbau von Cannabis in Anbauvereinigungen. Der Gesetzesentwurf zur ersten Säule (CanG) wurde von der Bundesregierung (Pressemitteilung vom 16.08.2023) und nach Beratungen vom Deutschen Bundestag am 23. Februar 2024 beschlossen. Das Gesetz tritt überwiegend am 1. April 2024 in Kraft, die Regelungen zum Eigenanbau in Anbauvereinigungen am 1. Juli 2024.
Säule 2 sieht regionale Modellvorhaben mit kommerziellen Lieferketten vor. Parallel zur Umsetzung der Säule 1 bereitet die Bundesregierung die Säule 2 vor. Das Bundesministerium für Gesundheit hat hierzu bereits die anderen Ressorts um entsprechende Beiträge gebeten. Der Gesetzesentwurf wird voraussichtlich der Europäischen Kommission zur Prüfung vorgelegt werden.