The federal government wants to help hospitals in the crisis. The cabinet wants to decide that this Wednesday, Health Minister Lauterbach announced on the ZDF program Markus Lanz. At the same time, the minister is trying to justify the planned legalization of cannabis.
The traffic light coalition wants to provide financial support to hospitals in the current crisis. For this purpose, the federal government wants to provide up to eight billion euros from the energy stabilization fund, announced Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach from the SPD on Tuesday evening on the ZDF talk show “Markus Lanz”. According to Lauterbach, the cabinet wants to decide this on Wednesday. “We will make sure that at no point in time are the hospitals lacking electricity or gas.” Lauterbach promises that no hospital should have liquidity problems due to inflation or the electricity and gas crisis. “No hospital will have to suffer in this crisis,” says the politician. Unlike industry, no hospital has to save energy.
It is not the first time that Lauterbach has announced a political decision first on Markus Lanz’s talk show. Above all, however, he is invited to talk about the planned release of cannabis. Here the minister is in a bad position this evening. And not every one of his justifications hits the mark.
The traffic light parties had agreed in their coalition agreement to release cannabis. The FDP in particular had demanded this. The federal government initially gave the green light last week. Still, stoners will have to wait, because the relevant law must first be approved by the EU Commission. Lawyers had recently warned that it violated European law and various UN agreements. The law stipulates that cannabis can only be sold by specially licensed dealers. The sale of the drug to children and young people under the age of 18 is generally punishable.
According to the minister, cannabis use is currently increasing, particularly among young people. At the same time, dealers would often cut the drug with substances that are more easily addictive. “As it is now, you can say: It couldn’t be worse.” The sale of cannabis to children and young people should be better prosecuted, according to Lauterbach, and further: “As long as the black market is there, you can’t control it.” At the same time, according to Minister Lauterbach, there are numerous adults who want to smoke pot. You can’t ban them. “You could also argue: why is alcohol allowed but not cannabis use?”
However, it is particularly important to Lauterbach to prevent children from consuming cannabis. And here he expresses a very daring thesis with Lanz: “If I give cannabis to young people, which would now be completely unpunished for a dealer in the schoolyard, then I can punish the dealer draconically in the future.”
However, the claim that selling cannabis in schoolyards or playgrounds is not punishable is fundamentally wrong. However, the penalties vary. In 2018, according to the “Mainzer Allgemeine Zeitung”, a 23-year-old small dealer was sentenced to five years in prison for selling cannabis. If he had been a few years younger, the sentence could have been lower: If you are 18, 19 or 20 years old, you do not have to be sentenced under adult criminal law. At this age, a youth penalty can also be imposed, which would have been significantly lower. Only dealers under the age of 14 may not be penalized.
According to Lauterbach, the reason for the planned legalization of cannabis sales to adults is that the previous criminalization of the sale of cannabis has not resulted in the black market being pushed back. “That’s what the shabbiest people in our society do business with,” he says. So far, no investigations have been carried out against these dealers. That should change now. If you have a license, you have to sell the drug at a price set by the state. Lauterbach cannot say how high it will be. And he is not asked about a possible black market for fake licenses. However, moderator Markus Lanz doubts that this law can be used to combat the black market for cannabis in a meaningful way. Lauterbach: “If the black market continued, it would mean that the law doesn’t work.” Then you can collect it again.
Lauterbach warns that cannabis is particularly harmful to children and young people. “There can be irreparable brain damage. People who start young have a lifetime increased risk of developing psychosis, particularly anxiety disorders, schizoid disorders and depression. I see this use increasing and I want to limit it.”
The question, however, is whether legalizing the sale, even partially, is the right solution. Dealer penalties could also be increased. However, Lauterbach sees a fundamental problem here: You can’t know who a dealer is, he says. A claim that can at least make you suspicious. Because actually a dealer is someone who deals. Where Lauterbach sees a problem is not clear.
You can believe Lauterbach cares about children’s health. But whether a partial legalization of cannabis, which a journalist colleague at Markus Lanz calls a “lifestyle drug”, is the right way to do this, remains questionable. “If you didn’t do that, you could also demand that 18 to 25-year-olds are no longer allowed to drink alcohol,” says Lauterbach.
In view of the more than 60,000 people who, according to the World Health Organization, die every year in Germany alone from alcohol-related diseases, one could also ask the question: And why not?
