In the coming days, the German federal government should reveal the direction it intends to take towards legalization. But before that, the German Federal Constitutional Court announced that it would make a decision on the constitutional status of the cannabis ban. Could everything go very quickly?
Cannabis outside the BtMG
As German magazine Highway reports, a trusted government source assures that a decriminalization of cannabis should take place as a first step and cannabis or the whole plant should be removed from the Narcotic Drugs Act (BtMG) .
Every German citizen would thus be free to cultivate a small number of plants within their four walls and to transport a certain amount of cannabis without risk. The implementation of the change in the law is also expected to take place as early as May 1, according to the source.
Faced with possible international and national resistance against full legalization, decriminalization, not subject to approval, could be a good starting point for Germany before fully legalizing cannabis.
Luxembourg took a similar route after its legalization efforts failed – or did not really want to – to pass the EU. A path of least resistance has been chosen: stick to legalizing the personal use of cannabis rather than implementing full regulation with sales.
Malta has also chosen to legalize cannabis without a sales system but with the establishment of associative Cannabis Clubs.
