Belgium (Brussels Morning Newspaper) The German government greenlit plans to make recreational cannabis use fully legal in the country, a move expected to bring in significant revenue and open thousands of new jobs.
German Healthcare Minister, Social Democrat (SPD) Karl Lauterback presented the draft plan on Wednesday, stressing that the model, if proven successful, could serve as a blueprint for other European countries to follow.
Under the draft plan, Germany would make it legal for citizens to buy and possess up to 30 grams of cannabis for recreational purposes, and to cultivate up to three cannabis plants at home, intended for personal use. The planned legislation would also heavily regulate and monitor the developing legal cannabis market in Germany.
Lauterback noted that the overarching goal of the initiative was to improve protection of young people, who are already consuming cannabis in increasing numbers, after buying it on the black market.
Commission approval
“We don’t want to expand cannabis consumption but to improve the protection of youth and health,” said the health minister, stressing that the current prohibitive model “isn’t working”, considering that around 4 million people in Germany consumed cannabis at least once during the past 12 months.
Two of the junior partners in the country’s three-party ruling coalition, the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) and the Greens, both had cannabis legalisation as part of their platform, and had insisted on including the pledge to legalise in the coalition agreement.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition made clear upon assuming power at the end of last year that the current government will end cannabis prohibition, but the move took a long time to prepare because the legal status of cannabis is regulated by international treaties and EU laws.
Part of the legalisation process will include Berlin submitting an outline of its plans to the European Commission for approval. If the Commission rejects the plan, the German government will look for another route to legalisation, but if it gives a positive opinion, the plan could serve as a blueprint for other European countries to follow suit. While several EU countries have either decriminalised recreational use or legalised medicinal use, only Malta has legalised all use, starting in December last year.
Opposite of Netherlands
“If this law comes to pass, it would be the most liberal project to legalise cannabis in Europe, but also the most regulated market,” said Lauterbach. “It could be a model for Europe.” According to a survey conducted last year, legalisation could bring about tax revenues and cost savings worth 4.7 billion euro, while creating some 27,000 new jobs in the industry.
The draft plan mandates that recreational cannabis will be sold in neutral outer packaging without advertising designs, and will ban all advertising of cannabis products. Sale of edibles and other cannabis products is not specifically mentioned in the plan, with Lauterbach saying the matter is still being considered but currently appears unlikely. The government will also likely not implement a general upper limit on content of THC, the main psychedelic ingredient, though an upper THC limit might be introduced for persons between 18 and 23 years old.
Lauterbach also stressed that the German government took the Dutch model as an example of how not to do legalisation, saying it had combined liberal use with an uncontrolled market, which he believes are disadvantages. “What we have learned from the Dutch experience is that we don’t want to do it that way. We want to control the entire market,” said Lauterbach.
