Legalisation of cannabis in Germany – users can rejoice

The legalisation of cannabis in Germany has been an issue since the October elections, when the new coalition was negotiating the next government. After the coalition agreement was reached, it was confirmed that the intention to legalise weed is no longer just a dream.

The subject will mainly be to regulate the sale of cannabis in licensed adult shops. After four years, a review of the law would then come to examine the social impact. The new government will also push for an extension of drug control powers, the associated reduction of potential harm and, finally, a tightening of the rules on the marketing of alcohol, tobacco and cannabis.

No further information has been made public.

While the new coalition government supports cannabis reform, it does not guarantee an easy path to legalisation. There is, however, considerable progress. The new government shows that legalisation of cannabis can bring some good and hopes for a good future. The former government under Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) opposed legalisation.

What happens next?

According to Prohibition Partners, a market research agency, the government will only control the Bundestag and will certainly need the approval of the Bundesrat, the other chamber of the German government.

“Past attempts at trial legalisation of cannabis, such as in Berlin in 2016, have been blocked by federal regulators on the basis that changes to Germany’s Narcotics Act require majority support from both of these government chambers,” according to a blog post last week. “Currently, the Bundesrat is dominated by conservative interests, although supporters hope that will change in the next year or two as the dominance of Angela Merkel’s CDU in the German states diminishes.”

The agency said the specifications of the legalisation plans will also be key in determining the nature of the newly legal adult-use cannabis market. However, this will not be the first legal market. Take medical cannabis, for example. Since 2017, when this type of cannabis was legalised, Germany has become Europe’s largest market.

Germany’s legalisation plan could be the first in the European Union, along with Luxembourg, which has plans to amend cannabis legalisation.

Legalisation of cannabis – what will be the impact?

It is not yet known what exactly might happen in the social spheres, but the economic aspect already looks very promising from mere estimates.

Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE) at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf for the German Hemp Association (DHV) have calculated how much Germany would earn from legalising cannabis and how much it would save on certain things. It is a staggering €4.7 billion. That’s a very large sum indeed. The biggest financial benefit would be from the cannabis tax, exactly €1.8 billion.

What is also great is that with legalisation comes a large number of jobs. It will be more than 27 000 people.

Hooray, finally something is starting to happen in the EU which could spur other member states on. We’ll see what time brings. But we expect that it will be 1-2 years before legalization really takes off in Germany. But certainly the Nukaseeds offer will stand out on the German market once everything is legal.