Germany could become the first European country to legalise cannabis and authorise its sale for recreational purposes, according to a coalition agreement for a new government struck by three parties. Many European countries, including Germany, have legalised cannabis for limited medicinal purposes. Others have decriminalised its general use, while stopping stopping short of making it legal. The centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), Green and libertarian Free Democrats (FDP) agreed to introduce legislation during their four-year term to create the controlled distribution of weed in licensed shops. "We would evaluate the (weed) law after four years for social impact," the pact read. (See also: ‘Controlled distribution’: How Germany will legalise recreational cannabis)

Germany is mulling over the consequences of soon becoming the world’s largest potential market for legally sold cannabis, as the country’s left-liberal government presses ahead with plans to allow the controlled distribution of the drug among adults. Olaf Scholz’s coalition government has in recent weeks reiterated its 2021 coalition-deal vow to legalise for recreational use what its Green and liberal party minister have taken to referring to as Bubatz, a slang word for weed popular among German rappers. A consultation process consisting of five public hearings with health experts, economists and cannabis growers concluded this week, firing the starting gun for a race to clear legal and regulatory hurdles within one to two years. A draft bill is expected within the second half of 2022. (See also: Germany seeks 'safety first' approach to legalizing cannabis)

Legal hurdles are slowing down German plans to allow the controlled distribution of cannabis among adults, with fears that a badly crafted law to legalise the drug could be thrown out by the European court of justice. In the initial debate around legalising cannabis in Germany, the main obstacle identified was the UN 1961 single convention on narcotic drugs, whose obligations Canada and Uruguay ignored when they took steps to legalise the drug. Now, however, Berlin increasingly sees the convention as the smaller challenge as the binding nature of various European laws has come into focus. A Council of the European Union framework decision from 2004, for example, requires member states to ensure that the sale of drugs including cannabis are “punishable by effective, proportionate and dissuasive criminal penalties”.

Cam Battley believes that in the not-too-distant future, his company — one of Canada’s largest licensed producers — will be exporting a “significant chunk” of the cannabis it is growing domestically. “We have a massive market over in Europe, even in Latin America,” says Battley, chief corporate officer at Aurora Cannabis Inc. “These countries are legalizing medicinal cannabis one by one but they’re not growing as much as us. They’re going to need product, and we’ve already got the ball rolling on exporting.”  It’s a sentiment shared by other major producers that are spending tens of millions of dollars to build up international footholds with the intent of being key players in the emerging global cannabis industry. But before they can make good on those ambitions, some things will have to change.

Last summer, during a press conference, Germany’s drug czar Daniela Ludwig said something goofy: “Just because alcohol is dangerous doesn’t mean that cannabis is broccoli.” The quirky statement was widely ridiculed online as typifying her out-of-touch approach to recreational cannabis consumption. And the drug czar seems to be in denial of how widespread cannabis use is. According to one survey, 28.3 per cent of Germans aged 18 to 64 have consumed the drug at least once in their lifetime. In Berlin, of course, weed and hash are omnipresent: On the street, in parks, wafting from balconies.

Die Befürworter einer kontrollierten Cannabis-Freigabe in Hamburg melden sich immer lauter zu Wort. Nun haben die Grünen einen Antrag in die Bürgerschaft eingebracht, in dem sie ein Modellprojekt zur kontrollierten Abgabe des aus der Hanfpflanze gewonnen Rauschmittels an Erwachsene fordern. So solle die durch den Schwarzmarkt entstehende Kriminalität bekämpft, die Prävention verbessert und die ineffektive Verfolgung von Kleinkonsumenten beseitigt werden. (Mehr dazu: Politiker wollen Cannabis legalisieren)

The legalization of cannabis is a prestige project for the current coalition government. Berlin doesn't just intend to decriminalize the substance, but also wants to regulate its cultivation and distribution, to change regulations on legal limits for driving and, to advance health and youth protection regulations. However, there are doubts in Brussels as to whether the German plans are consistent with EU regulations. Current EU law requires member states to criminalize all activities relating to the trafficking of cannabis – from production to preparation and distribution to sale. The Commission has also hinted at a loophole: EU law does not lay down any requirements for the personal use of cannabis; that is a matter for the member states. Whether that is broad enough to get the green light from Brussels for the entire legalization plan is questionable.

Germany's plans to legalise cannabis consumption in 2024 are looking increasingly unlikely as it has yet to submit its proposals to the European Commission, the health ministry confirmed to Euronews. The ministry said that its draft law for the legalisation of cannabis is “currently being drafted” within the federal government. “A large number of legal and operational questions concerning implementation need to be answered and coordinated between the ministries in charge” before it can be submitted to the European Commission, it added. Berlin unveiled its bold project to legalise cannabis in October 2022. Under the plan, German consumers would be allowed to buy up to 30 grammes of cannabis for private consumption with supplies cultivated and distributed through a controlled market.

When the German government announced in late 2021 its plan to legalize recreational cannabis sales in Germany, experts and cannabis enthusiasts put great expectations on the so-called "traffic light" government's plan to regulate the industry. Although Germany and other European countries focused in recent months on the war in Ukraine following the Russian invasion in February and the resulting efforts to detach themselves from Russian energy dependence, German officials had time to speed up the process of legalizing recreational cannabis. Commissioner for Addiction and Drug Issues Burkhard Blienert officially announced on June 13 the kickoff of the first of five expert hearings to prepare for the planned legislative process to legalize recreational cannabis.

With Canada the largest nation to completely legalize marijuana, the world’s most valuable pot company, Canopy Growth Corp., founded in 2013 and now worth about $6.4 billion, is one of the most controversial pot companies, the embodiment of Big Marijuana that critics contend uses size, market power, and lobbying prowess to accelerate the loosening of cannabis laws around the world and shoulder out competitors and smaller businesses. Already Big Alcohol, Big Tobacco, and Big Pharma have bought their way into Canopy and other marijuana companies. And, like those longstanding giants, the new cannabis corporations are spending millions of dollars lobbying for laws that let them sell large volumes of potentially addictive products.

Does the cannabis legalisation planned by the German government's traffic lights coalition violate European law and relevant UN agreements? While Bavarian Health Minister Klaus Holetschek (CSU) presented an expert opinion by law professor Bernhard Wegener from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Munich, who answered this question with a clear "yes", LTO has received an unpublished legal study by two scientists from the University of Nijmegen, which comes to the opposite conclusion. They examined the relevant EU Framework Decision 2004/757/JHA, which obliges Member States to criminalise any form of illicit trafficking in drugs and thus also in cannabis. 

It's cannabis crunch time in Brussels. In October 2022, Germany laid out a bold plan to fully legalize recreational cannabis for people aged 18 and over. But bloc-wide laws on everything from the single market to drug smuggling threaten to spoil the party — unless Germany can persuade the EU to get on board. The generally socially liberal Europe has been shy when it comes to legalizing psychoactive cannabis for recreational use. The drug is banned almost everywhere in the bloc and the few legalization initiatives are national movements. Now, Germany’s push for legalization, led by the progressive traffic light coalition currently in power, challenges the EU to hash out exactly how recreational weed could fit into the bloc's rules.

The German Minister of Health has given up the plan to have cannabis legalization as a whole approved by the EU. He is now pursuing a dual strategy: he only wants to submit part of the reforms to the Commission, while the other part is to be implemented solely on the basis of German law (and is allowed under EU legislation). In a first step, cannabis will only be available in certain pilot regions in certified shops. These could be large cities such as Cologne, Frankfurt, Berlin, Hamburg or Munich, but rural areas are also being considered in order to test the effects of legal sales under different conditions. The second part of the plan does not need the approval of the EU: decriminalizing posession (20/30 grammes), home growing and allowing cannabis social clubs. (See also: Germany will move forward with scaled-back marijuana reform plan amid EU review)

Hamburgs Justizsenator Till Steffen (Grüne) will das Kiffen zu einer Ordnungswidrigkeit herabstufen. "Es wäre wie beim Falschparken. Da kann abgewogen werden: Schreibe ich ein Knöllchen oder nicht", sagte Steffen der "Hamburger Morgenpost". Das bisherige System, wonach auch auf den Besitz kleiner Mengen Cannabis eine Strafanzeige folgen muss, ist aus Steffens Sicht gescheitert. "Das bringt nichts und macht viel Arbeit", sagte Steffen. Bei dem Thema Cannabis-Freigabe müßte im Ernstfall auch die CDU bewegen würde und einem Modellversuch zur kontrollierten Abgabe zustimmen würde.

Los entes locales y regionales de toda Europa se enfrentan a las consecuencias negativas de un mercado ilícito de cannabis que no decae. Cada vez más, autoridades locales y regionales, grupos de presión no gubernamentales y movimientos de base abogan por regular el mercado del cannabis recreativo. El Transnational Institute (TNI) analizó posibles modelos de regulación del mercado de cannabis (en Bélgica, España, Suiza, Alemania, Dinamarca y los Países Bajos) con el fin de que las autoridades locales compartan las mejores prácticas y mejoren sus conocimientos sobre los mercados de drogas como mecanismo para reducir las consecuencias negativas de los mercados de drogas ilícitas para las personas y la sociedad.

Algunos turistas tienen la impresión de que Praga es la capital del cannabis de Europa. Pero las apariencias engañan. Estos productos contienen como máximo un 1% de la  sustancia psicoactiva tetrahidrocannabinol (THC), que contienen las flores y las hojas de la planta de cáñamo y que hace del cannabis un narcótico. Todos productos ilegales en la República Checa si contienen más de un 1% de THC. La posesión de hasta diez gramos de marihuana, hachís o aceite de cannabis se castiga como "infracción” en la República Checa. Lo mismo ocurre con el cultivo de hasta cinco plantas de cannabis. La multa por este tipo de infracciones puede ser de hasta 500 euros. Unas 20.000 personas son condenadas cada año.

Germany's Health Minister Karl Lauterbach is sticking to his legalisation plans. In the coming weeks, he will present a proposal for cannabis legalisation that conforms to European law. "In the meantime, we have changed the original key point paper somewhat," Lauterbach said, without giving details. The proposal that he will present will be in conformity with European law on the one hand, and on the other hand will achieve the goals of the Federal Government. Scientists from Nijmegen University concluded in an expert report that the introduction of a state-controlled, national cannabis licensing system by an EU member state is possible under certain conditions in accordance with European and international law.

The German 'traffic light' coalition of the SPD, Greens, and Liberals promised in their 2021 post-election governing manifesto to not just decriminalise cannabis — but to be the first country in Europe legalise it. Nearly 18 months later, and with a battle with Brussels looming over the move, not to mention the likely knock-on effects of Europe's largest (by population) and richest nation effectively making marijuana another lifestyle choice, like alcohol, how is that going? EUobserver spoke to Georg Wurth, the head of the German Hemp Association [Deutsche Hanfverband] in Berlin, to assess the likely pitfalls and potential.

The number of drug offences continue to increase in Germany – a very real issue for the country. Drug Commissioner Daniela Ludwig is of course on the right track when she emphasises prevention programmes. Doing away with addiction as a social taboo is an important factor when it comes to combating drug abuse. But it would be even more helpful not to criminalise responsible citizens who use cannabis from time to time. Sixty per cent of offences are linked to plant-based drugs. The criminalisation of cannabis brings people – mostly young people – more quickly into an environment where harder drugs are consumed. Redefining what is illegal could help.