On April 1st 2024 Germany passed a law decriminalising the possession and home growing of cannabis.
Under the new law, people over the age of 18 will be allowed to possess 25g of cannabis in public spaces or 50g of cannabis at home. In addition, they will be able to grow three cannabis plants per household for personal use only.The smoking of cannabis in some public spaces such as near schools or sports grounds will remain illegal.
There has been debate in the Bundestag (German Parliament) for some time, but on 1st April 2024 the “Act on the controlled use of Cannabis and the amendment of other regulations” came into law (make sure you click the translate link on the site, unless you are great at German).
Dr Karl Lauterback – Federal Minister of Health for Germany since 2021 explained that these measures were taken with the aim of weakening the black market, protecting people from contaminated cannabis and to reduce the profits gained by organized crime groups.
European Union member states are obliged to control cannabis under UN Drug control strategies. Part of these rules prohibit member states from commercially producing or selling cannabis for non-medical use. This meant that Germany could not create a regulated commercial market for cannabis to be sold in shops or pharmacies for example. Instead, Germany are allowing ‘members clubs’ in which non-medical cannabis can be distributed in limited amounts. These clubs are allowed no more than 500 members and members must be residents of Germany.
Naturally this drew debate both in the Bundestag and through Europe, with concerns that these new laws would increase the use and harm associated with cannabis. Germany, however, are not the first European country to take measures like this. Portugal decriminalized use and possession of illicit drugs in July 2001. Luxemburg, Croatia and Slovenia have taken similar measures to Germany. So how did these changes affect these countries? To fully understand it’s worth clarifying a few terms that will crop up in this debate.
A paper by Hughes et al (2010) looked at the impact that the decriminalisation of the use and possession of illicit drugs in Portugal had on health and justice, in comparison to Spain and Italy. The study concluded that there had been a small increase in reported use of illicit drugs, but that there had been a reduction in illicit drug use amongst problematic drug users, as well as an increase in the uptake of drug treatment. There was a reduction in opiate-related deaths and infectious diseases, reduction in the price of drugs, an increase in the seizing of drugs by authorities and a reduction of the costs of drug offenders to the justice system.
Whilst it is possible that some of these trends are not directly related to decriminalisation, the report did challenge the concerns that decriminalisation would lead to increased crime and associated harm. Similar reports highlight a need to look at how we assess the impacts of decriminalisation, and what kind of regulations and services are effective in reducing associated harm to health or costs to social and justice structures.
It’s early days for Germany’s decriminalised system, but there will be much speculation and monitoring of the impact it has on the health, social and justice systems, as well as the lives and culture of people in Germany.
Comments