As of: March 18, 2024, 11:45 a.m
By: Andreas Schmid
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On Friday it will be decided whether the cannabis law can come into force on April 1st as planned - or whether it is in danger of failing completely.
On March 22nd it will be decided whether the cannabis law has to go to the mediation committee.
The Mediation Committee is a kind of dispute mediation body of the German Bundestag.
Laws passed by the Bundestag that do not find a majority in the Bundesrat, which is made up of the federal states, end up in this body.
The cannabis law is on the agenda on March 22nd.
And the resistance is great.
Decisive cannabis meeting in the Federal Council: Is there a threat of the mediation committee?
Several state governments have already announced that they will vote for the mediation committee.
They fundamentally reject partial legalization and argue, among other things, that it would place an additional burden on the authorities.
In principle, the Federal Council cannot actually stop the law.
Because it is an objection law that does not have to be approved by the state chamber.
The only chance for countries critical of legalization is the Mediation Committee.
The implementation of the cannabis law would then be delayed by several months.
The necessary negotiations then seem difficult, the fronts have hardened.
“My goal is that this law never comes out of the mediation committee again,” said Saxony’s Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (CDU) at the weekend.
Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) is now correspondingly alarmed.
Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) in the Bundestag.
A few years ago he rejected legalization - now he is worried about his cannabis law.
© M. Popow/Imago
Lauterbach warns that the cannabis law will fail in the Federal Council
Before the Federal Council meeting, Lauterbach warned that the cannabis law would fail.
“Every country co-governed by the SPD and the Greens must know that the cannabis law will die next Friday if you call the mediation committee,” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter) at the weekend.
There are also fears that the judiciary will be overloaded as a result of this in SPD-governed federal states.
The traffic light federal government's draft law stipulates that legally binding and not yet fully enforced penalties will be issued for offenses that are no longer punishable from April 1st.
Until the Cannabis Act comes into force on April 1st, the public prosecutor's office will have to review numerous old cases that should not have resulted in penalties under the new law.
Lauterbach defended the planned amnesty for old cases: Cannabis legalization would eliminate “tens of thousands of consumer offenses every year”.
“But postponing doesn’t help, the work stays the same,” added the Health Minister.
“The Union countries would thank you and bury the law in the mediation committee with all the procedural tricks.”
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Cannabis law: “There is no time for a plan B until the next federal election”
The members of the mediation committee usually look for a compromise.
If this does not succeed, the traffic light can override the concerns of the Bundesrat with its majority in the Bundestag.
But a delay apparently jeopardizes the traffic light's entire cannabis plan.
“There is no time for a Plan B until the next federal election,” said the FDP’s health policy spokesman, Andrew Ullmann, to the
Handelsblatt
.
After the 2025 federal election and a possible change of government to the CDU/CSU, the cannabis law would almost certainly disappear from the political agenda.
“This irresponsible and dangerous law will be one of the very first traffic light projects that we will reverse after a change of government,” said the Union’s health policy spokesman, Tino Sorge, to
IPPEN.MEDIA
.
Accordingly, the traffic lights seem to be nervous.
The chances for the law would be poor if it were sent to the mediation committee, warned Ullmann.
The project could then “fail” in the mediation committee.
The future of the cannabis law will probably be decided on Friday.