While Federal Minister of Health Lauterbach is promoting his plans for a limited legalization of cannabis, criticism of feared risks does not stop. In the focus of the opponents: the youth and the judiciary.
Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach wants to present his plans for the partial legalization of cannabis today. The relevant law is expected to come into force at the end of this year. But despite the weakening of the original draft by the Federal Ministry of Health, criticism of the project continues.
Above all, the Union is still opposed to the limited legalization. Saxony’s Interior Minister Armin Schuster from the CDU even warned the editorial network Germany of a “complete loss of control” that the planned law threatens to entail.
In their criticism, the Christian Democrats primarily point to a greater risk for minors and a possible overload of the judiciary and authorities. Schuster sees a risk for the mental health of children and young people in the health minister’s plans. He also expects that partial legalization will also increase the number of adult consumers. In the past few weeks, CDU politicians have repeatedly warned of the negative effects of legalizing cannabis – albeit limited – by which young people are not warned about drug use, but actually introduced to drugs, as deputy leader of the Union faction Dorothee Bär put it.
In the joint morning magazine from ARD and ZDF CDU health expert Simone Borchardt also warned against cannabis as a “gateway drug”, which is often downplayed. She warned of impending health damage, especially for younger people, since the human brain is only fully developed at the age of 25.
CDU warns of “disadvantages on all sides”
In his most recent criticism, the North Rhine-Westphalian CDU interior minister, Herbert Reul, focused on point number two: feared additional work for the authorities. “The planned cannabis law contains a large number of rules, prohibitions and restrictions. All of this must be controlled and violations must be prosecuted,” he emphasized. The police and judiciary would not be less burdened with the partial legalization, as Federal Minister of Health Lauterbach had hoped, but more.
Hesse’s Justice Minister Roman Poseck made a similar statement. The “lazy compromise”, which is intended to allow limited impunity for the possession and cultivation of cannabis, will bring “disadvantages on all sides”. The Bavarian Minister of Health, Klaus Holetschek, clearly demanded that the bill be withdrawn. “If Lauterbach still doesn’t come to his senses, Chancellor Scholz must pull the emergency brake and stop the crazy course of legalization,” said the CSU politician.
Bushman defends legislative plans
Lauterbach himself promotes his draft law with the strict conditions it contains in terms of youth protection and emphasizes that partial legalization could even relieve the judiciary. Not only because fewer offenses become criminal offenses, but also financially. After all, his ministry expects billions in relief for law enforcement agencies, courts and prisons.
Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann also defended the plans again in an interview with the Funke media group: “I am very confident that a more pragmatic drug policy will lead to relief for the courts.” He dismisses the objections of the CDU, which are also shared by the German Association of Judges, with the argument that “there are generally political reservations about this project”.
From Buschmann’s point of view, the repressive drug policy of the past decades “didn’t curb consumption, it pushed countless people into crime and created a flourishing black market”. “We have to combine realism with prevention,” demanded the FDP politician, referring to the guidelines contained in the draft law, which are intended to guarantee “education and prevention” for young people.
drug officer calls for more funds for prevention
One of the supporters of Lauterbach’s draft law is the federal government’s addiction and drug commissioner, Burkhard Blienert. However, he also makes the protection of children and young people the most important basic requirement. The funds for comprehensive prevention would have to be increased for this. “The new policy will only really succeed if a central component is considered and implemented from the start: prevention and a look at the additional protection of minors,” Blienert warned against “Zeit Online”.
From Blienert’s point of view, detailed prevention and education should be part of every school. This is precisely why the “red pen mentality” must end – “not only because of cannabis, but also”. But the drug commissioner also conceded that any form of prevention has its limits: “To be honest, a school without drugs is both a dream and an illusion, and certainly not reality.”
Grote fears “cannabis-surveillance bureaucracy”
But not everyone in the ranks of the traffic light coalition supports the partial legalization of cannabis. “If we don’t need anything now, it’s this law,” said Hamburg’s Interior Senator Andy Grote NDR. The SPD politician fully agrees with the criticism of the CDU. “Experiences from other countries show that consumption increases significantly with legalization – with all the risks and side effects,” he warned and doubted that the illegal trade in cannabis could be curbed by limited legalization. “It is to be feared that illegal cannabis will be in high demand due to higher efficiency and lower prices and that the black and legal markets will mix here,” emphasized Grote. The fight against this black market and a simultaneous control of the legal cannabis associations threaten to degenerate into an “extensive cannabis surveillance bureaucracy”.
But the draft law is not only politically controversial. Doctors’ associations had also repeatedly expressed concerns, as did the police union (GdP), which reiterated its arguments against Lauterbach’s plans. The federal chairman of the union, Jochen Kopelke, also called on Lauterbach to stop the draft law completely and make massive improvements. There is no sufficiently long transition phase in the implementation of partial legalization, which will “inevitably lead to massive uncertainties, if not conflicts, between the authorities and the population”.