At midnight, they swirled their first plumes of legal cannabis smoke into the air, in front of the emblematic Brandenburg Gate, in the heart of Berlin. Several hundred people celebrated, on the night of Sunday March 31 to Monday April 1, the change in law authorizing the recreational use of cannabis in Germany.
After Malta in 2021 and Luxembourg last year, Germany becomes the largest country in the European Union (EU) to embark on this path. Possession of 25 grams of dried cannabis is now authorized in public places, as well as cultivation at home, up to 50 grams and three plants per adult.
An approach diametrically opposed to that of France and different from that of the Netherlands, where the consumption of hashish is not legal but tolerated, in particular through “coffee shops”.
Transition period
Paradoxically, you will have to wait another three months in Germany to legally buy drugs via a “Cannabis Social Club”. Hence the warning in the meantime from Georg Wurth, representative of the German Hemp Federation: despite legalization “the consumer must not tell the police where he bought his cannabis” in the event of a control in the Street. “Because from April 1, you can in principle only obtain drugs illegally,” he said in an interview with Agence France-Presse.
The situation will really change on July 1 with the clubs. These non-profit associations will be able to sell to their members a maximum of 25 grams per day and no more than 50 grams per month.
These clubs, a sort of shared cannabis garden, will be able to cultivate the drug on land outside, in a greenhouse, in an uninhabited building. Controlled at least once a year by the authorities, each association will be able to accommodate, in return for a contribution, a maximum of 500 people who have been residing in Germany for at least six months.
According to the government, the new legislation, ardently desired by environmentalists and liberals in the coalition of Social Democratic Chancellor Olaf Scholz, should make it possible to fight more effectively against trafficking. Believing that the policy of prohibition has failed, the Minister of Health, Karl Lauterbach, regularly argues that countries like Canada, which have implemented legalization, have been able to reduce the black market.
But many medical associations fear an increase in consumption, particularly among young people. Up to the age of 25, cannabis consumption carries increased risks for the brain that is still forming, according to experts, who point out in particular the danger of developing psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia.
For Katja Seidel, who specializes in addiction prevention at the Tannenhof Center in Berlin, the new law is “a catastrophe.”
Raise awareness among young people
The German Minister of Health has promised increased means to educate young people about the dangers of cannabis, without announcing precise amounts. The authorities argue that cannabis remains prohibited for those under 18. Its consumption is also within a radius of 100 meters around schools, nurseries, playgrounds.
The police are also up in arms against what they consider a “bureaucratic monster with a lot of piecemeal regulations”, according to the president of the branch union (DPolG), Rainer Wendt.
“From April 1, our colleagues will find themselves in conflict situations with citizens, because uncertainty reigns on both sides,” explains the vice-president of the police union (GdP), Alexander Poitz .
For its part, the Federation of German Judges (DRB) anticipates additional work: due to the amnesties resulting from the law for cannabis-related offenses, more than 200,000 cases will have to be re-examined. This will prevent criminal justice “from devoting itself to other tasks for weeks and months,” points out Sven Rebehn of the DRB.
