Police union warns of illegal trafficking through planned cannabis legalization

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Rainer Wendt is also critical of the Cannabis Control Act (archive image)

Photo: Martin Schutt / dpa

The German Police Union warns of the planned legalization of cannabis for consumption purposes.

"The profits that trade and the state want to achieve make cannabis considerably more expensive," said federal chairman Rainer Wendt of the German press agency.

"The illegal trade in cheaper products will flourish, because only the wealthy can meet their needs in pharmacies, children, young people and low-income earners will continue to run to the dealer around the corner."

According to the coalition agreement, the SPD, the Greens and the FDP want to introduce a “controlled distribution of cannabis to adults for consumption in licensed shops”.

This would "control the quality, prevent the transfer of contaminated substances and ensure the protection of minors," it says.

Controlling the cannabis trade is "pure wishful thinking"

The new coalition gives the impression of getting things under control with a cannabis control law, complains Wendt. "That is pure wishful thinking, especially since the federal government is neither responsible for controls nor for the protection of minors." The Netherlands, which is liberal in the matter of cannabis, has shown that illegal cultivation and trade, import and distribution are strengthened and criminal gangs engage in violent disputes over market shares would afford.

Companies that already have a license to cultivate medicinal cannabis from the state cannabis agency, such as Demecan, which has a large production facility near Dresden, are now hoping for good business.

“We are able to ramp up our production within a short period of time and, in parallel to the medicinal cannabis, also produce luxury goods,” said Managing Director Cornelius Maurer.

According to the traffic light parties' plans, the planned law is to be reviewed for “social effects” after four years.

How exactly the state-controlled sale of cannabis should take place and how the state could earn money from it has not yet been determined.

kim / dpa