The Conference of Justice Ministers on Thursday approved a proposal from Baden-Württemberg and Berlin to revise the cannabis law, writes SWR, according to translation.
What happened: The Baden-Württemberg Justice Minister Marion Gentges (CDU) and Berlin’s Senator for Justice Felor Badenberg recently criticized Germany’s cannabis law. The Minister and Senator argued that contrary to the objectives of the law, legalization actually made the fight against the black market and organized crime more difficult. Together, they submitted a request at the Justice Ministers’ Conference to allow undercover investigation again.
Why it matters: The main concerns of the law include troubles in the effort to deal with the illegal market and organized criminal activities, especially in the commercial trade of cannabis products. With cannabis not being considered a narcotic anymore, telephone surveillance and online searches of its usual extent have been disabled. This means that not all the evidence is allowed to be used in criminal proceedings.
Partial cannabis legalization took effect in Germany on April 1. Under this first pillar of cannabis legalization, adults over 18 can legally possess up to 25 grams of dried cannabis flower and cultivate up to three marijuana plants at home. One of the biggest breakthroughs under the law is that medical cannabis is essentially regulated like ibuprofen.
Read Also: Germany’s Govt. Coalition Crisis, Is Cannabis Reform At Risk?
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Specific Case
One specific case that recently made headlines, involves a 36-year-old man who smuggled 450 kilograms (992.08 lbs) of cannabis into Germany, estimated to be worth 1.9 million euros ($2.1 million). The controversy arises from the new law, which doesn’t consider cannabis-related crimes as serious crimes and therefore the prosecutors can’t use encrypted chats from the provider Encrochat as evidence. The man was released, prompting Gentges to say, “Drug dealers are beneficiaries of this law.”
The case was before the Mannheim Regional Court, but the court’s judgment is not yet legally binding. However it is raising questions among the judiciary nationwide, and cannabis opponents are using it as an argument against the reform.
What’s next: The justice ministers now want to fix this gap, perhaps by allowing online searches and wiretaps for serious cannabis-related crimes again. The Federal Ministry of Justice is expected to examine the proposal.
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