A particularly perfidious side of failed prohibition policy

Legalization of cannabis is in danger of failing due to legal hurdles, which when the prestige project was agreed in the coalition agreement, very few people suspected that they even existed. Germany has committed itself to the criminalization of narcotic substances both under international and European law; the planned legalization is likely to violate this and could be overturned by the European Court of Justice.

While the EU does not force its member states to prosecute individual users of cannabis, it does force producers and wholesalers to do so. In the Netherlands, for example, this leads to the absurd constellation that coffee shops can sell their goods legally but have to buy them illegally, which in turn prepares the ground for drug cartels who use the structures and distribution channels created in this way to sell other (harder) use drugs.

The federal government rightly wants to avoid such undesirable developments. But the problems she is exposed to reveal a particularly perfidious side of the prohibition policy, which failed from the start: it cannot be changed easily even if the necessary change in mentality finally comes after decades of the senseless and unsuccessful "war on drugs". uses.

Numerous EU member states such as Spain, Luxembourg, Belgium, Portugal, the Czech Republic or Malta have opted for different variants of decriminalization or pseudo-legalization due to the European legal hurdles, despite the associated disadvantages in terms of quality control, protection of minors, taxation and much more.

However, the long list also shows that the time is finally ripe to fundamentally rethink the EU's prohibition policy, which cannot be justified by anything. As an economically and diplomatically powerful member state, Germany could put itself at the forefront of this movement. The government would thus have the opportunity to put the courageous, progressive and liberal policy with whose promises it started out to the test in very practical terms.

At the traffic court day in Goslar, new limit values ​​for the cannabis active ingredient THC will also be discussed. So far, even trips with small amounts in the blood are punishable. "Safety has priority," said Transport Minister Wissing.

Source: WORLD