At midnight on Easter Monday, an estimated 1,500 people gathered in front of the towering Brandenburg Gate in Berlin to celebrate the minute Germany’s adult use cannabis law took effect.
Starting today, adults 18 and older are allowed to legally possess and consume cannabis, and to grow three plants at home. In July, up to 500 adults can form cannabis clubs where members grow and sell among themselves. There are strict limits on these clubs: no on-site consumption is allowed, membership is allowed only at one club at a time, and only residents can be members.
This moment was years in the making. But it also marks just the first step that Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government plans to take when it comes to cannabis reform.
When Scholz took office at the end of 2021, the coalition backing him said that it would pursue legalization. Six months later, drugs commissioner Burkhard Blienert conducted a public consultation to inform potential legislation, and the five hearings included more than 200 invited stakeholders who represented more than a half dozen countries.
By October 2022, health minister Karl Lauterbach released a draft plan that called for a fully regulated system of adult use sales, from cultivation to retail. However, after he shared this plan with the European Commission for feedback, a revised plan with a two-phased approach was released last April. After discussion and debate among lawmakers, the legislation passed Parliament in February, and the Federal Council in March.
What is unfolding now, one year later, is the first phase of that plan, which takes a conservative first step toward legal cannabis. There is no proposed legislation yet for the second phase, which would allow for a regulated supply chain of sales. However, it is expected to take the form of a five-year pilot program.
Cannabis pilot programs have become a popular approach to reform in Europe. The Netherlands and Switzerland, for example, have adult use pilot programs underway. This approach allows for select municipalities to tightly control the supply and sale, and for data to be collected along the way. Malta was the first country in Europe to legalize cannabis for adults, but regulators have made clear they have no plans to allow for a “commercialized market.”
The only countries where cannabis is fully legal for adults, with licensed cultivation and sales, are Canada and Uruguay.
