Should the consumption of cannabis be allowed?
If the traffic light coalition consists of the SPD, Greens and FDP, things could change in drug policy.
Munich - hemp plants are not in the picture this time.
The possible coalition partners leave nothing to chance, their appearances are carefully composed, so such a flower pot with delicate contents would be very irritating.
The Greens * have known this since 2014, when their then party leader Cem Özdemir was seen in a much-noticed video on his balcony - the said hemp plant next to him.
He called the motif a "gentle, political statement".
Seven years later, the Greens are bluntly expressing their stance on drug policy.
They entered the coalition negotiations with the declared aim of legalizing cannabis.
You justify this step with better protection of minors and the drying up of the black market.
Anyone who goes to a licensed specialty store and buys drugs of verifiable origin (and is at least 18) does not have to go to the dealer where they do not know what they are getting.
Consumers would no longer be criminalized, the judiciary and the police would be relieved.
Explorations: FDP argues with tax on cannabis
The release of soft drugs has a high potential for divisions, but it is one of the less controversial topics in the traffic light negotiations. The FDP * argues in a similar way to the Greens, and also states that a cannabis tax would bring in around one billion euros a year, with which prevention, addiction advice and treatment could be improved. The SPD * does not go as far as the other parties. But she, too, is at least thinking of model projects.
The negotiations have barely got underway, but there is also louder resistance.
Oliver Malchow, Federal Chairman of the Police Union, warned
emphatically against legalization
in the
Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung
: “It has to be an end to glossing over the joint.” Rainer Wendt of the German Police Union fears dire consequences on the streets: “If so soon If people with stoned people still participate in traffic, we have a problem. "
Cannabis: Medical professionals divided over the risks and benefits of releasing it
The Hamburg child and youth psychiatrist Rainer Thomasius warns that regular consumption is a danger, especially among young people. The development of the brain could be damaged by the active ingredient THC. He cites a study according to which the risk of psychosis increases by a factor of 3.2, with frequent smoking weed and high drug content even by 4.8.
Kirsten Müller-Vahl also has very different experiences.
The neurologist and psychiatrist at the Hannover Medical School refers to countries like Uruguay and Canada that have approved cannabis.
The data show that “the approval serves to prevent addiction”.
A sale in a specialty store enables important factors to be checked: the age of the buyer, the quantity sold, the quality of the product.
This should also be taken into account with regard to younger people, for whom a flourishing black market is particularly dangerous: “It is important to protect the children.
A dealer doesn't do that. "
Annual report for Germany: number of cannabis users among young adults is increasing
Müller-Vahl is therefore in favor of “going a new way. We have to admit: The previous drug ban policy has failed. ”Just last week, the Federal Drug Commissioner Daniela Ludwig presented her annual report, according to which the number of cannabis users among young adults continues to rise. In 2019, it was 24.1 percent for 18 to 25-year-olds.
The debate is not over yet, but the direction in which it should go is clear.
The FDP even has a proposal ready as to how much cannabis should be taxed: ten euros per 100 milligrams of THC.
In addition to the billion that this would raise, wage and sales tax would flow from the specialist shops.
In the end, everything has to be in order.
Even in the drug trade.
* Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.
