As of: March 29, 2024, 11:01 a.m
By: Katarina Amtmann
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Cannabis legalization is imminent. Many questions are still unanswered, for example: Is it allowed to smoke weed in your own garden if there is a kindergarten nearby?
Munich - Some call it an April Fool's joke, but the authorities in Bavaria are not amused: On April 1st, the cannabis law rejected by Bavaria comes into force - with numerous requirements and sometimes unclear provisions.
Despite resistance from Bavaria, the traffic light coalition's controversial cannabis law will come into effect in Germany from Monday. This allows cannabis to be consumed without punishment according to strict rules. Adults are then allowed to possess and grow cannabis to a limited extent. However, a lot of things seem unclear at the start - and there is still harsh criticism, especially in the Free State.
Stoner fans “don’t go to Bavaria” – can Söder’s hard line be enforced?
Inevitable: the consumption of cannabis is also permitted in Bavaria. The state government aims to strictly enforce the rules - but admits that control will be difficult. The attitude of Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) was therefore not well received in police circles. “Söder is putting the authorities and the police in a position in which they have to monitor very closely,” says the state chairman of the German Police Union (DPolG), Jürgen Köhnlein. However, precise administrative regulations and sufficient staff and instruments are lacking.
Cannabis legalization is imminent - but some questions still remain unanswered (symbolic image). © IMAGO / MiS
“It is particularly unreasonable for the police to have to control this ill-thought-out chaos of regulations, to the extent that it can be controlled at all,” says Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU). Nevertheless, he assures that the rules are controlled as strictly as possible. Herrmann cites road traffic as a focus. The police see practical problems here, especially since more people could now be behind the wheel after consuming cannabis. There are no rapid tests that can be used in court; urine tests are more difficult to carry out than breath tests. Every time there is a suspicion of drug use, blood must be taken at the end.
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Cannabis legalization: When can cultivation associations legally harvest in Bavaria?
That could take until fall. Growing associations will not be able to start immediately on July 1st. “The applications for growing associations will not be examined before July 1st because they cannot be approved before then,” says Health Minister Judith Gerlach (CSU). According to the law, the approval process should be completed after three months. Therefore, the availability of legally grown cannabis will remain limited for some time to come.
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Although it is unclear whether more people are now taking up the joint, the minister warns that the start of consumption without legally grown cannabis will encourage the black market in the coming months: "Actually, there can be no legal cannabis in circulation before July, because only then Then the growing associations may be approved according to the law.” According to experts, plants grown privately from Monday also need at least eight weeks to grow, depending on the variety and fertilization.
Cannabis legalization: Will Bavaria sue against the law?
This still remains an open question after some back and forth. The prospects of a legal stop to the unpopular law seem slim. Nevertheless, Health Minister Gerlach wants to examine the lawsuit again. “After the Federal Council meeting, the final version of the Consumer Cannabis Act as well as the new protocol statement from the Federal Government are now available,” said the CSU politician. “Bavaria is examining the documents in detail to see whether there is scope for a lawsuit.”
About two weeks ago, Gerlach said that after an examination by her ministry, she saw no options for the Free State to take action - neither before the Federal Constitutional Court nor anywhere else, for example at the European level. Before the Federal Council's decision, Interior Minister Herrmann had reaffirmed the Union Interior Ministers' fundamental willingness to sue. He admitted that it was not a simple question of how the whole thing could ultimately be brought to court.
Who can smoke weed in Bavaria from Easter Monday - and where?
Basically the same rules apply in Bavaria as in the rest of the republic. Adults - everyone over the age of 18 - are allowed to have up to 50 grams of cannabis at home for their own use, travel with up to 25 grams - and they are also allowed to smoke the grass in public.
But this is where the restrictions begin: You are not allowed to light a joint within a radius of around 100 meters from the entrance area of playgrounds, schools, sports facilities - including football stadiums - as well as children's and youth facilities. This also applies elsewhere in the immediate presence of children and young people under 18, even if they are your own offspring. Pedestrian zones are also joint-free zones between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m.
More playgrounds, fewer stoners: is the Aschheim example setting a precedent?
A playground to prevent cannabis cultivation or consumption? In Aschheim -
already declared a possible “hash home”
by
Bild
- a businessman is planning to set up a cultivation community at his hemp shop and grow cannabis. The community responded with plans for a playground near the town hall - for parents who have to go to the authorities with their children. In principle, other municipalities could also take this route. However, no further cases are currently known, either at the Bavarian Cities Association or the Bavarian District Association.
Is it allowed to smoke weed in the garden or on the balcony if there is a playground nearby?
The experts' answers are cautious. The inviolability of the home also applies to the exclusion radius. “It remains to be seen how this will be dealt with if, for example, weed is smoked at the kindergarten fence because as a direct neighbor you are inevitably in the restricted zone,” says the state chairman of the police union (GdP) in Bavaria, Florian Leitner.
Jürgen Köhnlein, the state chairman of the DpolG, assumes that you can smoke on your own balcony or in your own garden, even if the playground or kindergarten is less than 100 meters away - just not directly in front of the children's eyes. The smoke shouldn't go there either. “Then a mother calls the police and says: “My child is in the cloud of steam, I don’t want that” - and then?”
Cannabis legalization: What do the Bavarian authorities and the police expect?
Everyone in the Free State agrees that there can be no question of the relief promised in Berlin. The police expect a mountain of additional work, trouble with users - and people who are bothered by smoking weed. According to surveys, around half of the population rejects legalization, says DpolG regional director Köhnlein. “These people will call the police if they sense a violation,” he predicts. So more missions. In addition, there are now new administrative offenses and significantly more criminal offenses than before.
According to Thomas Karmasin, President of the Bavarian District Council and District Administrator of Fürstenfeldbruck (CSU), the “already overburdened authorities are being imposed an insane administrative and enforcement burden”. Youth welfare offices in particular are confronted with significant additional prevention tasks. “The traffic light leaves no answer as to how our people are supposed to handle this package of tasks.”
Grass at Oktoberfest, joint with beer - what applies at Oktoberfest?
That too is unclear. The economic department of the city of Munich, as the organizer of the largest folk festival in the world, made no concrete statements. The economics consultant and festival director Clemens Baumgärtner told
Bild that
you first have to take a close look at the law. However, he has a bad feeling when he imagines joints being passed around in the Oktoberfest beer gardens.
According to experts, limited cannabis bans might be possible if safety issues or rules of the law are fundamentally affected. Minister Gerlach emphasized that the consumption of cannabis is generally prohibited in the immediate presence of minors. This also applies to folk festivals. A spokesman for the ministry also warned against mixed consumption of cannabis and alcohol: “Studies show that cannabis increases the effects of alcohol.”
(kam/dpa)
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