Germany: Cannabis legalization almost didn’t happen Trump insists on immunity in document scandal

What the traffic light coalition had once planned as perhaps the greatest socio-political reform has now been passed by the Bundestag. But the law on the legalization of cannabis, which MPs from the coalition factions SPD, Greens and FDP approved on Friday, has hardly anything to do with the original claim to offer cannabis for free. Over the course of two years, the prestigious project was first divided and then became increasingly fragmented and complicated in the intra-coalition dispute over limit values ​​and distance rules.

The project, which was so significantly downsized, came about only against resistance from medical associations, police representatives, the judges’ association, social associations and teachers’ associations. The interior ministers of the states are also unanimously against it, and even individual coalition members in the Bundestag refused to say yes. It remains unclear whether Germany is taking the right path in decriminalizing a soft drug or thereby exposing young people to dangerous intoxication.

The traffic light originally shared a common belief: the previous prohibition policy in the field of cannabis prevention has failed, despite police prosecution and the threat of punishment, weed has been openly traded in German parks for years – dirty cannabis, of unclear origin, which adolescents use to damage their brains. A new, liberal approach must therefore be taken: legalize and inform people about the risks.

Shredded piece by piece

When the SPD, the Greens and the FDP negotiated the coalition agreement in the autumn of 2021, they agreed on sales for recreational consumption in state-licensed shops, as well as legal cultivation in cannabis clubs or at home, accompanied by education and evaluation. But the magic of the beginning soon gave way to disillusionment: it turned out that state-licensed shops selling cannabis were violating EU law. Alternatives had to be found.

And so the ambitiously launched reform was fragmented piece by piece, just as cannabis is ground in a grinder to build the joint: In order to be able to show anything, the responsible Minister of Health, Karl Lauterbach, has made the easier to reach implement cannabis cultivation in private homes or in cannabis clubs in a separate bill. The Social Democrat promised that the law on commercial trade would come later.

The irony of the project is also that, although Lauterbach outwardly defended legalization, his own views on drugs were not nearly as friendly as those of the FDP and the Greens. Lauterbach fought on two fronts from the start: on the one hand against the skeptics, on the other hand also against the fervent supporters of the project – as can be seen, for example, in the battle for legal cannabis possession.

Fight for every gram

In the first key points for a law in September 2022, Lauterbach provided for a maximum permitted limit of 20 grams of private property. In his follow-up article seven months later, it was already 25 grams. The FDP and the Greens in the Bundestag subsequently increased the value for domestic property to 50 grams – grass for a maximum of 150 joints.

Possession of up to 60 grams remains unpunished, i.e. decriminalized – three times as much as in the beginning. The number of cannabis plants that consumers can legally grow at home in the future has also increased from two to three. The minimum distance for cannabis smokers to children and youth facilities was halved from 200 to 100 meters, ultimately ‘in sight’.

The cannabis-friendly Bundestag politicians of the FDP and the Greens elaborated on the paragraphs that the ministries involved wrote together under the leadership of Lauterbach. There was a bitter struggle for every gram and every meter: the traffic lights faction leaders had to meet again and again in Berlin to save the project.

But resistance arose not only in the Bundestag, but also among the state governments. And so the legalization law will probably not come into effect on April 1 as planned. Because skepticism prevails in the Federal Council, even among state governments led by the SPD. As ZEIT ONLINE has learned, the traffic light factions expect that the state chamber will send the project to the conciliation committee, which can then tactically postpone the bill until the fall or even distort it beyond recognition. Lauterbach’s Hospital Transparency Act and the Growth Acceleration Act alone were in place for months.

The fact that the law took so long to pass was not only due to internal contradictions, but also to the deteriorating political situation: Putin’s attack on Ukraine forced Germany to make a drastic change in gas supply and defense policy. There was also a budget crisis. Paving the way for intoxicating pleasure at such a moment would not have been well received by the public, group members said. From December onwards, the decisive vote was postponed from week to week, with the coming into force of the promised New Year’s Eve taking place until April 2024 – the outcome is unclear.

Critical interviews and open letters

State governments and interest groups of all stripes took advantage of this to increase their criticism of the law and Lauterbach. “Karl Lauterbach, as Minister of Health, is seriously proposing the establishment of drug clubs,” polemicized Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU). North Rhine-Westphalia Health Minister Karl-Josef Laumann (CDU) was not the only one who rejected the idea of ​​cannabis model regions as soon as it became known. But his own people also opposed or critically questioned the legalization, including the Social Democratic department heads and the Green prime ministers.

Critical interviews with lobby representatives of doctors, police officers and lawyers determined the daily morning situation at the Lauterbach ministry, trade unions, welfare and teachers’ associations mobilized in open letters against cultivation and ownership.

One of the central arguments was that the protection of minors was neglected. Many critics complained that it was too early to allow anyone over the age of 18 to consume cannabis, as research has shown that cannabis can affect brain maturity and memory in adolescents. As much as Lauterbach could answer, a higher age limit made no sense because it would only drive all the younger people into the black market in the park. He didn’t get away with it. Ultimately, the minister also had to yield to the scientific evaluation of the law: at the insistence of critics within the coalition, this will now happen after two years at the latest – although there will be considerably less scientific data.

And even in the parliamentary group of Lauterbach’s own party, the SPD, leading domestic politicians ultimately fundamentally questioned their health minister’s bill. They complain that police officers on patrol cannot distinguish whether someone with 25 grams in their pocket is a dealer or just a consumer. And the judiciary is in an “exceptional state of overload” as the files of thousands of criminal cases would have to be reprocessed due to the planned amnesty for past cannabis crimes.

Since then, things have been fermenting within the SPD faction. MPs Sebastian Fiedler – a police officer by profession – and Sebastian Hartmann called on their own parliamentary group to reject the law in a letter made available to ZEIT ONLINE. The head of the Internal Affairs Committee, SPD man Lars Castellucci, also publicly stated that he did not want to agree – regardless of the resulting political damage to the SPD, its Health Minister and the legalization project.

All this baggage will be added to the Cannabis Act when it reaches the Bundesrat after the vote in the Bundestag. The Green representatives in the state chamber are said to have offered the federal level not to convene the conciliation committee if the coalition were to move the entry into force of legalization from April to October – this would give the states and municipalities responsible for controlling cannabis clubs more time to give. to thoroughly implement the reform to be implemented. But Lauterbach is said to have rejected this. It is therefore likely that the bill will remain stuck in the conciliation process during the parliamentary summer recess until October.

This article first appeared on Zeit Online. Watson may have changed the headings and subheadings. Here is the original.