If we weren’t writing the year 2022, but the year 2024, the Ebersberg District Judge Vera Hörauf might have had a longer lunch break that day. Then the place in the dock would have remained empty for the hearing in the early afternoon. Although it is not yet clear when cannabis will actually be legalized in Germany, Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD) recently issued at least an initial target of 2024. However, that didn’t help the 27-year-old, who was now on trial in Ebersberg. Because the police found a few grams of currently banned substances at his home, he was sentenced to a hefty fine.
Specifically, the currently unemployed middle-county man was storing 6.5 grams of marijuana and 1.3 grams of amphetamines at his home when officers showed up at his door on an August evening this year. So there wasn’t too much for the defendant to deny in court, so he tried to explain: he actually had nothing to do with amphetamines. That evening he had a party and that’s where these kinds of drugs were used. “It was a one-time thing,” he said. “It won’t happen again either.”
“Then I’d better wait until it’s legal, right?” the defendant asks the judge
In the case of marijuana, however, the 27-year-old could not make this promise. He doesn’t smoke weed regularly, but he does from time to time, the man admitted when asked by Judge Hörauf about his general drug use. The chairperson expressed the fear that one could meet more often here in the boardroom, after all the possession of cannabis is still a punishable offence. “Then I’d better wait until it’s legal, right?” asked the defendant – which the judge didn’t think was the worst idea. In the end, Hörauf wanted to know whether he could really quit that easily or whether he was feeling addicted. Quitting, according to the 27-year-old, is not a problem. “It’s not that bad.”
On the other hand, what was bad for him that day was that his criminal record included two other offenses against the Narcotics Act – as the public prosecutor also noted in his pleading. The 27-year-old had a relevant criminal record and was only sentenced a year ago for the same crime, said the prosecutor, who therefore demanded a fine of 100 daily rates of 15 euros each.
Judge Hörauf finally settled on this total of 1500 euros in her judgment. The facts are clear, and there wasn’t much to deny, she said. However, in view of the three previous convictions, one has to consider whether imprisonment is not the method of choice here. She therefore suggested that the accused reconsider his drug use in the near future. “Not that you go to jail for something like that.” The 27-year-old accepted the verdict and vowed to get better.