As of: February 22, 2024, 10:24 a.m
By: Andreas Schmid
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The draft cannabis law lacks clear rules for driving.
A new THC limit has still not been found.
A ban through the back door?
Update from February 20th
: The cannabis law is approaching.
The traffic light coalition wants to vote on it in the Bundestag in February.
It should be ready by April 1st.
In addition to a few other points, there is no clarity in one thing in particular: how to deal with the rules when driving (see initial report).
A look at the draft law shows that the traffic lights here are very vague.
On page 102 it says: “The Federal Ministry for Digital Affairs and Transport will examine and determine on a scientific basis the limit values for tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) that determine the permissibility of driving motor vehicles on public roads within the framework of Section 24a of the Road Traffic Act (StVG).” A concrete value is therefore missing.
A working group should present a guideline for this.
“The results of the working group should be available in spring 2024.” This means that the Cannabis Act leaves a crucial question unanswered for the time being.
Legalization advocates had repeatedly warned that the driver's license should not be used to impose a ban through the back door.
Karl Lauterbach slides into the next cannabis dilemma
First report from May 2023
: Berlin – After two small beers, a grown man can legally get behind the wheel.
As a rule, the limit of 0.5 per mille has not yet been reached.
If he abstains from alcohol and smokes a joint a day ago instead, it's his turn.
That's what the current law wants.
The traffic light is thinking loudly about new rules - but almost completely excludes the topic in the current draft law.
Also because scientific findings are rare and even the experts on the Limit Values Commission are divided, as
Merkur
research shows.
A joint has a more individual effect than a bottle of beer and the detectability of cannabis and alcohol is also different.
The hemp active ingredient THC is usually only broken down from the body after one to three days.
The high is already gone and consumers feel fit to drive.
This is irrelevant for the drug test.
The limit currently applies here of 1.0 nanograms of THC per milliliter of blood serum.
As part of Health Minister Karl Lauterbach's legalization plans, there are discussions about a higher value.
So the central question is whether you are already fit to drive - even though the active ingredient THC in hemp can still be detected in the blood.
Disagreed Cannabis Limit Values Commission: “There is no scientific evidence”
Cannabis legalization is progressing, but many questions still remain unanswered: for example, regarding the rules when driving © Jörg Carstensen/picture alliane//Imagebroker/Imago (Imago)
Cannabis and road traffic are only sporadically addressed in a current version of the bill.
The previous regulations should be “evaluated,” it says.
There is a lack of concrete information as to whether and, if so, how the current limit value should be adjusted.
The paper is available to our editorial team.
Since it is still being voted on within the government, something can still change.
According to the Ministry of Health, “expert committees” should be involved in the decision.
What do the experts say?
This probably refers primarily to the Limit Value Commission (GWK): an advisory body for the federal government that set the previous limit value in 2002.
20 years later, the group is discussing a possible adaptation.
So far, the ten members - mostly forensic doctors - have not been able to agree on a THC limit.
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The Munich forensic doctor Matthias Graw warns against higher limit values and tells our editorial team: “There is no scientific evidence that this does not endanger road safety.” Cannabis consumption affects ten percent of the population, road safety 100 percent.
People who consume a lot would particularly benefit from an increase in the limit value.
“In other words, those who are viewed as fundamentally unsuitable to drive.”
GWK member Volker Auwachter sees it completely differently.
He is head of the forensic toxicology laboratory in Freiburg and can imagine an adjustment to 3.5 nanograms.
“From a road safety perspective, there are no comprehensible reasons for me why a “zero tolerance” should apply to cannabis, while a risk limit should be applied to alcohol,” says Auwachter.
The scientific consensus is that the risk of causing an accident under the influence of cannabis is in the range of the risk of “moderate alcoholization” between 0.1 and 0.5 per mille.
He published his findings together with other members of the Limit Values Commission, including GWK boss Stefan Tönnes.
GWK member Frank Mußhoff on the legal situation
In 2004, the Federal Constitutional Court determined that an abstract dangerous crime appears possible from a THC level in the serum of 1 ng/ml.
The aim is to increase road safety (protection of important legal interests such as life, health and property of road users).
This is offset by “only” the general freedom of action provided for in Article 2 Paragraph 1 of the Basic Law, which tends to have less weight in relation to the general welfare.
Cannabis dilemma about studies: “You would have to make people addicted”
Last year, the German Traffic Court concluded that the limit is so strict that “it enables proof of cannabis consumption, but does not necessarily allow conclusions to be drawn about a road safety-relevant effect.” Siegfried Brockmann, head of accident research at the insurer, sees the current rules as such a “ban through the back door”.
Cannabis consumption and vehicle ownership are de facto mutually exclusive.
A slight adjustment to three nanograms is conceivable, although Brockmann finds the current limit value just as acceptable from an accident protection perspective.
Because: “There is no valid study that allows us to say at what level it is dangerous to traffic.”
Why is it so difficult to achieve consistent scientific knowledge?
The GWK member Thomas Daldrup wrote about this in a specialist journal: “The existing data is not sufficient to define limit values on the basis of scientific findings.” Or as another member said in an interview with the
Munich Merkur
: “You would have to tell people about cannabis -make you addicted in order to have good comparison values.” This is ethically untenable and raising the THC limit overall is a political decision, not a scientific one.
There were talks between the GWK and the federal government last year, but there has been little contact since then.
The group does not appear to be involved in the current legislative process, as GWK members tell our editorial team.
The GWK learned about the current draft law from the media.
The Limit Values Commission is subordinate to the Ministry of Transport.
When asked, FDP Minister Volker Wissing's house stated that the GWK's findings would be “appropriately taken into account”.
The decision was made “on a scientific basis”.
But this basis currently seems to be missing.
Cannabis limit: traffic light politicians are calling for significant adjustments
The topic is also on the agenda in the Bundestag.
In the respective committees, it is mainly members of the Union who are at loggerheads with the traffic light legalization architects.
“No driving under the influence of cannabis,” says CSU health politician Stephan Pilsinger to the
Munich Merkur
.
“Just because a substance is available without penalty does not automatically make it harmless.”
Legalization advocates like Green Party politician Lukas Benner see it differently.
He is responsible for road traffic law in the Bundestag's legal committee and, upon request, brings an adjustment to 5 nanograms into play.
“Anyone who is not intoxicated should not be punished.” Traffic light colleague Kristine Lütke, drug policy spokeswoman for the FDP, cites three to four nanograms as a starting point.
“That is not only justifiable, but sensible.” The Left once demanded even higher values.
Like the Union, the AfD categorically rejects cannabis legalization.
As long as the federal government cannot agree on a new limit, the current law will remain.
Even if THC levels are low, the authorities can currently order a medical-psychological examination (MPU).
The exam, known as the “idiot test,” is more difficult than expected and costs several hundred euros to boot.
Florian, 26 and a student from Bavaria, has already gotten to know the MPU.
He consumed cannabis at a festival and drove home a day later.
He had not consumed anything the evening before departure.
He was stopped by the police.
Drug test positive, driver's license gone.
(as)