Hemp activist Wenzel Cerveny sells his cannabis products in Baldham and other shops in Bavaria and Luxembourg.
Now he's supposed to go to court.
Indictment: gang-related drug trafficking in 36 cases.
Baldham
- hemp tea, hemp shampoo, hemp oil, hemp noodles, hemp foot cream, hemp vodka: Clearly, Wenzel Cerveny's 59-year-old Baldham shop is all about cannabis.
The former restaurateur and hemp pioneer from Kirchseeon also sells flowers for inhalation.
Everything is legal, the operator assures.
The Munich I public prosecutor's office sees it differently.
She wants to bring Cerveny to justice.
The prosecutors accuse him of selling illegal cannabis products on a large scale.
Charges: Large-scale sales of illegal cannabis products
If you want to understand why the hemp shopkeeper and the public prosecutor's office have such contrary opinions about his hemp products, you have to know THC and CBD.
Cannabidiol, or CBD for short, occurs like THC in hemp.
The active ingredient is hardly psychoactive, so it is not subject to the Narcotics Act (BtMG).
Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), on the other hand, is an intoxicating active ingredient and is banned in Germany.
Most of the goods in Cerveny's stores contain CBD.
One of the oils contains 15 percent of it, 100 milliliters cost 490 euros.
The operator swears by CBD: It should have a calming and anti-inflammatory effect or support functions of the immune system.
Seller sure: his goods are legal
The hemp activist refers to Appendix I of the BtMG.
The law declares CBD products legal if their THC content does not exceed 0.2 percent and it is used exclusively for commercial or scientific purposes.
His products would contain a maximum of 0.16 percent THC.
Thus his goods are legal.
Says cannabis businessman Cerveny resolutely.
There is no limit to the sale of THC products.
In turn, says Senior Public Prosecutor Anne Leiding when asked.
The prerequisites (commercial and scientific purposes) would not be met if sellers sell THC products to end users.
"Any product with THC content is a criminal offense when it is sold to the end user." That is why the public prosecutor has brought an indictment with the Higher Regional Court.
200 police officers and public prosecutors in the "hemp" search operation
The lawsuit was preceded by a search of Cerveny's stores and his private house in April 2019. Since the end of 2018, more and more CBD consumers who had bought the products in hemp shops have been picked up, according to the prosecutor.
Around 200 police officers and public prosecutors were involved in the concerted "Hanf" search.
In addition to Cerveny, eight other suspects in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg were the target of the searches.
During the searches, officials took goods with a retail value of 250,000 euros, says Cerveny.
In his Baldham store alone, police confiscated 22 kilos of CBD products.
The shopkeeper is much more annoyed that police officers and public prosecutors would stigmatize him as a drug dealer.
"They abuse the word marijuana," he says.
But his goods would consist of industrial hemp.
There are also CBD products with low levels of THC at drug stores such as Rossmann, says Cerveny.
“Why are they allowed to sell it?” He asks.
Cerveny is not afraid of a trial.
He has three lawyers at his side.
In court he wants to "give full throttle".
It will be a show process, says the activist.
A "Las Vegas" for free hemp.