Tag: Germany

CSU leader Markus Söder and Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach trade barbs over current government drug policy – which goes viral on German Twitter

It all began so innocently. Markus Söder, the leader of the “opposition” to the current parties comprising the Traffic Light Coalition, threw a weighted barb at the government’s drug policy during the CDU party congress in Hanover last weekend. Söder claimed that the legalization of cannabis would automatically lead to the legalization of drugs such as crystal methamphetamine (a highly addictive and dangerous street drug).

There were two problems with the approach. The first is that one of the parties now making up the coalition government, the Greens, did call for the legalization of “party drugs,” specifically cocaine, ecstasy, and amphetamines – but not crystal meth – in August. This is, however, not in the platform of the Traffic Light Coalition – which is only planning to legalize cannabis. A draft bill is expected to be made public either at the end of this year or early in 2023.

The second however, no doubt prompted by the above inaccuracies, was that Söder mispronounced the name of the drug – and instead, referred to the drug as “crystal mett.”

And this set off a rapid fire, and often humorous response.

Social Media Mockery

It was not only Lauterbach who mocked the mispronouncement on Twitter. His response? “Despite the scathing criticism from Markus Söder that the legalization of cannabis promotes the use of Crystal-Mett, we will not slow down on the same. At least vegetarians will remain safe.” Lauterbach was making a pun connecting the mispronunciation of the name of the drug to the German word for a chopped raw meat spread, frequently served with onions on bread.

This in turn set off an imaginative interchange where German Twitter users posted multiple pictures of what a “meat drug” might look like – or how it might be consumed.

Crystal Mett. Der richtig harte Stoff pic.twitter.com/ds02CE50Ya

— KarstenSt (@StKarsten) September 5, 2022

This particularly imaginative response showing an addict applying heat to a spoonful of the referenced meat spread and then injecting it directly into his veins is entitled “The really hard stuff.”

The responses – both from the Health Minister and the Twitterverse seem to reflect the fact that Germans are rapidly warming to the idea of recreational cannabis reform – especially as the majority of the country is behind medical use.

This is a very good sign for the passage of full cannabis legalization sometime in the next 18-24 months aus Deutschland.

Germany is in the midst of a cannabis legalization effort that is more complicated and robust than anything that has ever occurred since the dawn of cannabis prohibition so many decades ago. After the dust settled on Germany’s last federal election in 2021, the incoming coalition government announced plans to move Germany toward launching a regulated adult-use cannabis industry. The current governing German coalition, commonly referred to as the ‘Traffic Light Coalition,’ has worked since late 2021 to explore various public policy components of legalization. According to the results of a new poll from Ipsos, a strong majority of Germans support the effort.

Per Ipsos‘ news release announcing the results of the poll, “61 percent of those surveyed say they would support the controlled sale of cannabis in licensed stores. Only 39 percent consider the plans to legalize cannabis to be irresponsible and fundamentally reject legal sale and consumption.” The survey was conducted online between September 2 and 4, 2022, and involved 1,000 eligible voters between the ages of 18 and 75 in Germany.

Diving Into The Results

Fortunately, there’s majority support for legalization among all age categories (18-75), however, there are statistical differences between age groups. While 61% of the poll’s participants support adult-use cannabis legalization, roughly 55% of people aged 60-75 were supportive. That is quite a bit less than the level of support among poll participants that were aged 18-39 (65%). Sixty two percent of poll participants aged 40-59 years old expressed support for legalization.

The level of support for cannabis legalization does not extend to the legalization of other banned substances in Germany. When poll participants were asked if other substances should be legalized in addition to cannabis, 95% of people expressed opposition to such a public policy change. The overwhelming level of opposition was found across age groups, although younger poll participants were more likely to express support for further legalization compared to older poll participants.

Not An Easy Lift

The current general consensus for when regulated adult-use products will actually be available for legal purchase in Germany seems to be by the year 2025. After the results of the 2021 federal election in Germany became final there was hope for legalization to become a reality in 2022. However, time has proven that hope to be a bit too ambitious.

The fact of the matter is that what German lawmakers and regulators are trying to do is something that has never been done before, at least not at the same scale. Sure, Canada and Uruguay have implemented legal adult-use sales, yet those markets pale in comparison to the size and complexity of Germany’s market. Germany has a much larger population compared to Canada and Uruguay combined, and Germany’s geographical location makes things that much more complex to navigate.

I am personally hopeful that there will be multiple steps to implementing legalization in Germany. After all, there is no need to wait for sales regulations to be formulated before implementing personal possession, consumption, and cultivation provisions. Clearly, cannabis prohibition is a failed public policy in Germany and it would be wise for lawmakers to implement as many legalization provisions as possible that pertain to individual consumers prior to finalizing provisions geared towards regulated sales.

Bayern’s Health Minister has appealed to the German Chancellor to stop cannabis legalization because it was “irresponsible” after Olaf Scholz declares that there is no point in delaying cannabis reform

Last Friday, Bavaria’s Health Minister Klaus Holetschek, a member of the CSU, called on the federal German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz (of the SPD) to stop plans to legalize cannabis. In a speech made in Munich, Holetschek based his arguments on a speech that the Chancellor had recently made in Magdeburg that the government will continue to press forward on legalization plans despite some evidence that per Scholz that “people suffer psychological damage” and “ruin their lives” by using cannabis. “If the Chancellor knows the major health risks of cannabis, he should now make use of his authority to issue directives and put the legalization project on hold,” Holetschek said.

The attack appears to be, beyond a direct attack on cannabis legalization specifically, a political attempt to build on citizen protests against Scholz that occurred in Magdeburg last week. These are being prompted by fears over inflation and rising energy prices, beyond generalized criticism of the leadership of the Traffic Light Coalition itself.

Regardless, Holetschek is also the most senior politician, so far, to criticize the idea of cannabis legalization.

What does this mean for German reform?

An Easy Political Target by Conservatives

There is much talk of a conservative backlash in Germany this fall as energy inflation begins to bite. That said, it is uncertain how successful this will be, particularly as the current government has been signalling all summer that it will continue to roll out a package of incentives and other help to minimize the economic pain felt by Germans. The widely praised (and used) $9 a month train tickets are just one of these initiatives. So is a $300 grant to taxpayers from German utilities to offset higher energy prices (which has already been distributed).

The fact that cannabis legalization has been apparently added to issues to criticize the current government over, by a centre-right politician who seems to be trying to score points against the ruling parties more generally, is, as a result, far from a surprise.

The attack also appears to indicate that those against cannabis reform have little evidence or political capital to expend to support the same.

That said, there is increased rumbling if not doubt among some on the ground here that the Traffic Light Coalition will achieve their goal of passing legalization legislation in the next 12 months. Reasons usually now focus on how the German government will be able to fit legalization into international treaties which specifically ban cannabis less than domestic opposition – starting with the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotics.

For that very reason, full cannabis legalization is likely to become even more of an imperative as the tripartite government coalition now consisting of authorities from Germany, Luxembourg and Malta strives to create a value that Germans can understand.

Just like help in alleviating the high cost of fuel, cannabis reform represents a tangible metric of accomplishment.

As a result, the fact that a conservative German regional political figure, in what is considered Germany’s most staid state, is trying to call the ruling government “irresponsible” (for any reason) is unlikely to gather much steam federally.

That said, it does appear that other state health departments across Germany are also in the middle of a cannabis education campaign. For example, the Frankfurt Drugs Department will be holding an online forums in early September to educate the public about the efficacy of medical cannabis in treating psychological disorders as well as discuss burning issues like the assumption of costs by insurers for cannabis treatment beyond allowing people to discuss recreational reform.

What such backlash might be a signal of, however, rather tragically, is that state officials in states like Bayern may throw a wrench in local attempts to establish dispensaries once federal reform comes, creating a patchwork of reform that varies from state to state.

In a rather shocking victory, the German Traffic Court Association has recommended that legislators increase the level of THC found in blood of drivers suspected of drugged driving before being able to charge them

There has been an unbelievably surprising if not progressive victory on the recreational cannabis front in Germany this August that will certainly have long term implications. Namely, the German Traffic Court, by definition a conservative group that helps set rules on road safety, has recommended to legislators now trying to write cannabis reform legislation, that the current limits on THC levels should be raised from their current level before drivers can be charged with drugged driving.

The current limit is currently one nanogram of THC per millilitre of blood (or the smallest measurement possible). In other words, if one has inhaled any cannabis within the last 60 days, it might prohibit one from driving altogether.

Clearly this is an impossible standard. Yet unlike the police, the Traffic Court has suggested that this limit be increased, citing the impossibility of enforcement once recreational reform becomes legal.

What that limit should be, however, is another question – and further one that went unanswered by the Association.

Regardless this is a highly significant advance for reform. The Association’s recommendations are frequently used by lawmakers when crafting legislation. It is likely that this one will be too.

Driving and Cannabis Use

The entire conversation about driving and cannabis use is one that has been festering in Germany ever since 2017. Namely, patients, who are likely to have the largest concentrations of cannabis in their system but are the least likely to be “high” when driving, have been left in an uneasy legal limbo.

It appears that the Traffic Court has recognized both this, and the other large issue lurking in the room – namely how to judge if someone is impaired by weed while driving by measuring any body fluid.

Impairment from THC intoxication generally lasts no longer than five hours. The problem is finding a test that will accurately reveal if a driver was on the road within this window of time.

Blood tests, rather than hair or urine, are the go-to tests for police inquiries in drugged driving cases.

In the United States, new breathalysers are also being used in some states by the police, although their use is still not only controversial, but even the police prefer blood tests.

It is not clear how such testing would be performed in Germany post legalization.

One thing is for sure. It is far easier to recommend that the current ridiculously low limits be raised – and another to determine what those limits should be.

Benjamin Limbach is the new Minister of Justice of North Rhine-Westphalia and has stated that he considers the legalization of cannabis to be a German “right”

In an encouraging development for the recreational cannabis discussion, Benjamin Limbach, the Green Party-affiliated Minister of Justice and member of the state cabinet as of June, has now publicly backed recreational reform. According to Limbach, he will help implement any law the Bundestag passes in Germany’s largest state.

This is encouraging news, particularly given the battles on the ground so far in the state also referred to as “NRW,” where the city of Dusseldorf was forced to reverse its ban on CBD just last year after losing in court.

Will There Be NIMBY Issues in Germany?

While politicians of all stripes are beginning to recognize that backing the legalization of cannabis is a winning issue, there is also no doubt that reform will also, like it has in other places, instigate more local backlashes to continue to ban the legal sales of adult-use cannabis. There may also be local bans on cultivation and manufacturing.

While cannabis legalization is increasingly popular with the public as a whole, there are still many who believe that this is not a positive development.

So far, of course, this issue has not been an issue in Germany, but that is because nothing has become concrete. In neighbouring Holland, local communities protested local cannabis cultivation farms after they had been selected in a national bid.

National Law, Local Regulations

One of the more interesting questions that has so far been left unanswered is whether local jurisdictions and municipalities will be able to ban either local production or sales once recreational reform becomes the law of the land. In California, for example, despite having a legitimate legal market since 1996 and a recreational one since 2016, there are still counties and municipalities that have banned dispensaries outright.

Given the highly emotional response to cannabis use that is still present everywhere, this is likely to become a political issue post-legalization. In the meantime, continue to expect high-ranking politicians who are in the ruling government coalition to publicly support the advance of the Traffic Light Coalition policy. For the very first time aus Deutschland at least, supporting recreational reform has become not only a political game-changer but an issue politicians will back to bolster their careers.