Consuming cannabis and marijuana for recreational use will be legal in Germany by the end of the year. This was confirmed this Wednesday by the Minister of Agriculture, Cem Ozdemir, who gave a press conference in Berlin together with the Minister of Health, Karl Lauterbach, to present the bill that will culminate in the partial legalization of drugs.
The new legislation will allow legal cultivation within certain limits and private distribution through non-profit groups, but not the widespread sale of cannabis in stores. However, the standard provides for a pilot project to a small number of licensed shops in some regions with which it is intended to test how it would work and if it is possible to create a commercial supply chain for recreational cannabis in public health, child protection and the black market.
On the other hand, in a first step, the possibility of creating clubs of a maximum of 500 people to plant cannabis. Members of these entities, who must be over 18 years of age, may purchase a maximum of 50 grams of marijuana per month and a limit of 25 grams per day for recreational and personal use. Private cultivation, of up to three plants, will also be allowed.
The project is based on Germany’s conviction that the policy based on the criminalization of consumption has failed. “We don’t create a problem, we try to solve a problem. We know that with criminal law we don’t get very far. We want to protect the youth, we want to fight the black market and drug-related crime,” declared the Minister of Health.
Lauterbach explained that manipulated products that increase health risks are frequently sold on the black market. “That is something that we cannot continue to accept. That is why we are committed to a controlled supply of cannabis to adults with clear limits and prevention measures for young people.”
As we have commented, the Government intends to create a pilot project that makes possible legal commercial supply chains that can be better controlled by the State. “The intention is to develop a pilot project that can serve as the basis for a European cannabis policy based on prevention and not on the criminalization of consumption,” said Lauterbach.
Özdemir, for his part, confessed that it was a complex problem, not only because there is a very strong debate around it, but also because it touches on European law and international law. In any case, he added, “Cannabis use is a social reality, ignoring it does not eliminate it”.
“The policy of criminalizing cannabis has failed for decades. It has not succeeded in driving people away from cannabis but has instead created a black market,” he concluded.
The project presented to the press today is the result of a re-elaboration of an original plan, after consultations with the European Commission, and the implementation of one of the plans established in the coalition agreement of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Greens and the Liberal Party (FDP), as reported by EFE.
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