CANNABIS IN GERMANY
The regulation of marijuana consumption and cultivation proposed by the Scholz government aims to reduce the crime associated with its trade.
The German coalition government of Social Democrats, Greens, and Liberals has agreed in its Council of Ministers to decriminalize the purchase and limited cultivation of between 20 and 30 grams of cannabis for recreational use, whether in private or public places.
Olaf Scholz's administration thus takes a further step toward legally normalizing a consumption that remains subject to the clandestine conditions imposed by the prohibition on its cultivation and sale in most of Europe.
"If all goes well, I believe legalization could happen in 2024," the Social Democrat minister emphasized when presenting the roadmap approved by the Council of Ministers. But everything will depend on the European Commission's review.
Germany had The cultivation of marijuana for medicinal purposes was already authorized in 2014 and now a new measure is advancing with the dual objective of fighting the black market and the mafias that control the business and at the same time protecting the potential consumer.The minister justified this reform as a desire "to achieve better protection for children and young people," considering the current policy ineffective in a context of rising cannabis use. Four million people in the country used this so-called soft drug last year, a quarter of whom were between 18 and 24 years old, he indicated.
Health Minister Karl Lauterbach, a Social Democrat and a physician himself, advocates for limited private cultivation of two or three plants per person, with public purchases permitted in authorized establishments. These establishments must have a specific license; they do not necessarily have to be pharmacies. German regulations stipulate strict restrictions on their proximity to schools and colleges. The ultimate goal is to achieve controlled distribution of cannabis, as opposed to its current illegal circulation.
The failure of current repressive policies against the consumption of certain illegal substances is forcing countries to adopt measures that allow for the control and flourishing of a multi-billion-dollar business. Police pursuit of organized crime involved in cannabis trafficking has met with very limited success. And the gradual permissiveness toward its use is not so much a surrender as a controlled normalization of a substance that accounts for 39% of illegal substance use in the EU. The decriminalization of consumption in many EU countries almost always goes hand in hand with a paradoxical ban on its purchase. The inevitable consequence has been to leave the purchase and sale in the hands of trafficking networks, and it entails large amounts of money in criminal prosecution without reducing the risk of adulteration. Recent calculations by the University of Düsseldorf suggest that legalization would generate around €5 billion per year through taxes.
The proposal must obtain the approval of the European Commission and overcome opposition from the German pharmaceutical industry and some states opposed to the measure. Despite this, the government hopes legalization will be effective in 2024. In any case, the message sent by the EU's largest economy proposes an alternative to police repression to legally acclimatize a cross-generational consumption present in our societies with increasing levels of acceptance. Regulation is the smartest measure against illegal trade.
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