Progressive Decree
The Bundestag, which is the lower house of the German parliament, voted unanimously to legalize medical cannabis on January 19. The development was not unexpected, as it followed one year of promises from the federal Health Ministry to legalize medical consumption, and over 15 years of intense lobbying by activists and diverse political parties to liberalize drug laws.
The upper house of parliament will “read” the legislation this month, and the bill will then become law.
Chronically ill patients including those who suffer from cancer, chronic pain and nausea can obtain prescriptions from regular doctors and will be able to fill them in regular pharmacies (or apothekes). They will, however, not be able to continue to grow their own supply, which has been the stopgap measure approved by German courts for the last several years. Instead, patients will be reimbursed under health insurance.
Until domestic (state-supervised) cultivation is initiated after the creation of a state cannabis agency (expected by 2018), the country will continue to import dried cannabis flower and extracts primarily from Canada. One German company—MedCann GmbH, which obtained licenses for the same last year—has been importing dried flower for about five months. They were bought out by their supplier Canopy Canada, one of the largest commercial grow operations in the country, right before Christmas 2016. Canopy and Tilray, owned by Privateer Investments, are currently the only companies who have been granted import licenses.
“What this decision ultimately means in the short term is that Germany has joined the ranks of countries in which cannabis is no longer a demonized drug, and further it has been deemed to have medical purpose.”
It is not Colorado (yet)
The German approach to medical cannabis is still relatively cautious with a focus on patient care rather than legitimizing full scale, recreational use. While patients will no longer have to endure a complicated registration process, not to mention grow their own supply, their anonymized information will be passed to the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (or BfArM) for further study.
As a result, cannabis research, until this point largely conducted in Israel, will enter an entirely different phase—and on a federal level. This in and of itself is likely to change the entire discussion about medical use internationally.
What this decision ultimately means in the short term is that Germany has joined the ranks of countries in which cannabis is no longer a demonized drug, and further it has been deemed to have medical purpose.
Recreational Reform is Also in the Works
In addition to the federal decision to legalize the drug for medicinal use, the pressure is also on to change laws in Germany about recreational cannabis. Berlin, as the country’s only “city-state” is also on track to legitimize the country’s first controlled recreational experiment after fighting to obtain the right for years from BfArM. Cannabis will soon be available for sale in some capacity in the city, although don’t look for Dutch-style “coffee houses” just yet.
Both developments, while momentous, are happening because the Germans have always maintained a very different attitude about cannabis, especially considering that attitudes about cannabis are in flux internationally.
Germany’s recent development also means that the Berlin “experiment” is likely to spread to other German cities fairly quickly. Every stadt or city here has some form of illicit drug market. The city of Bremen is likely to continue to pressure the federal government to expand the modest gains made on this front last year. Residents are able to grow up to five cannabis plants in private. Dusseldorf and Frankfurt are reportedly also examining the possibility of setting up small drug-sale zones where local residents can buy limited legal qualities of cannabis.
The reason for this change in the weather is happening now because of the international movement to legalize cannabis and because of political pressure to respond to a public mood at a time when much stronger political winds herald profound changes for Europe. Most Germans feel that chronically ill patients should have access to medicinal supplies and that it is better to legally sell cannabis via a regulated, taxed industry than spend tax dollars to pay for police to repeatedly bust low level street dealers.
As a result, facing much larger pressures, including the fate of the EU, German politicians obviously felt it was time to give the people safe access to cannabis.
