Germany unveils recreational marijuana plan — RT World News
The substance will be sold in authorized stores and produced locally according to the proposal of the Ministry of Health
Germany has agreed to legalize the possession and supply of small amounts of marijuana in a « state-licensed and controlled framework“, revealed on Wednesday the German Minister of Health, Karl Lauterbach, during a press conference.
According to the federal cabinet’s plan, licensed companies will be allowed to produce cannabis nationwide, for sale in licensed stores and pharmacies. Adults can save between 20 and 30 grams of dried plant material – and up to three actual plants – for their own supply.
Young adults under the age of 21 would not be banned from buying marijuana entirely, but could be limited to less potent products, the health minister suggested, noting that existing drug policy had no failed to « to assure“the protection of young people.
« The trend is in the wrong direction and we also have a thriving black market, which of course comes with crimeLauterbach observed. The aim is for the legal and taxable market to undermine the black market by offering competitive prices of comparable strength and quality, the latter being regulated by Berlin. However, the government does not plan to set the prices itself and has not decided whether a « cannabis taxin addition to the sales tax must be applied.
Cannabis advertising will be prohibited, and packaging will have to be “neutral« , while stores selling the drug must be located away from schools and may not also sell alcohol or tobacco. Consumption of cannabis where it is sold is unlikely to be permitted, although Lauterbach has said the government was still considering this issue.
Although he did not give a timetable for when Germans will be able to buy cannabis at their local pharmacy, Lauterbach estimated that legalization could come into force by 2024. The approval of the executive board of the EU is needed to move forward, he acknowledged.
If given the green light, he said, the German example « could be a model for Europereplacing the existing tangle of often contradictory and selectively applied restrictions. Lauterbach stressed that he does not want Germany to follow the example of the Netherlands, where the legal market is not heavily regulated. The government will review thesocial effectsof legalization four years later.
Some four million Germans reported using cannabis last year, Lauterbach said, with a quarter of those aged 18 to 24 having tried it. Medical cannabis has been legal for sale and use in the country since 2016.
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