Six months after Germany legalised cannabis, the promised legal highs from volunteer-run “cannabis clubs” have gone up in bureaucratic smoke.
Just one of Germany’s 16 federal states has the administration in place to implement a new federal law from April 1st, legalising possession for over-18s of up to 25g of cannabis for personal use. The new provisions allow over-18s to join so-called cannabis clubs to buy up to 50g a month on a non-commercial basis. Six months on, however, most cannabis clubs are still waiting for their permits.
“I’m pissed off,” said Oliver Waack-Jürgensen, a board member of an umbrella organisation representing German cannabis social clubs. The April law has left members in legal limbo, he said, with no improvement in sight.
The new regime introduced in April remains a long way from the original promise of Germany’s so-called “traffic light” coalition. Its 2021 government manifesto promised “a controlled supply of cannabis to adults for recreational purposes in licensed shops”. That was watered down several times – in particular after legal warnings from the European Commission. The licensed shops have been postponed in favour of a “test phase” involving volunteer-run clubs. But cannabis clubs, a spokesman says, are fighting on two fronts: laws that are “far too complicated ... and peppered with all sorts of stupid requirements”; and local authorities who “lack expertise and lack the will” to implement the April law.
In six months, rather than the thousands of applications expected, a mere 300 cannabis clubs have filed the necessary paperwork. In Berlin, Germany’s drugs and party capital, just one application has been filed. The reason: Berlin’s city-state government and its largely autonomous districts are still fighting over whose job it is to process the applications.
A year before Germany’s next scheduled federal election, opposition conservatives are promising to roll back the regime if elected.
Meanwhile, Germany’s federal commissioner for narcotic drugs, Burkhard Blienert, insisted the cannabis law, despite the controversy and bureaucratic hurdles, remains a “milestone” on two fronts. It has freed up police to tackle large-scale drug rings rather than small-scale users, he argued, while legalisation will eat into the black market and cut the profits of organised crime.
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As cannabis clubs struggle to get off the ground, attention has turned to the other provision in the April laws: permission to grow three marijuana plants for private use. Some see the knock-on effects of this home-grow policy in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Police here have linked an “unprecedented” series of recent bomb and gun attacks to turf wars between Dutch and German drug gangs. Some suggest the violent attacks are growing as gangs step in to fill the gap that cannabis clubs cannot. Others suggest gangs are encroaching into each others’ territory as the new home-grow regime eats into their sales.
Prof Bernd Werse, a Frankfurt-based sociologist and drug researcher, said: “The police officers I speak to, at least, are happy they don’t have to go after the potheads any more.”
He is not surprised at the bureaucratic nightmare facing cannabis clubs, but suggests the new laws have still ushered in a quiet revolution in Germany. Medical cannabis is now widely and easily available, he said, while “people I would never have imagined are now growing marijuana plants on their balconies”.
One such hobby grower is Florian, a 61-year-old retired civil servant in Berlin.
“We were curious after a friend gifted us three plants and they looked lovely in the garden,” he said. “Eventually we realised they are the male plants and we need female plants for cannabis. We don’t smoke but probably we’ll try again next year anyway.”
