Germany opens its “cannabis clubs” from Monday

This is the second expected step in the legalization of recreational cannabis implemented by Europe’s largest country three months ago. Since April 1, Germany has decriminalized the possession of cannabis in limited quantities.

The clubs will allow amateurs to cultivate plants and share the harvest among themselves.

In these associations, open only to residents of Germany, members over 21 years old will be able to buy a maximum of 50 grams of weed per month (30 grams for adults under 21 years old).

A tangible expectation

The expectation generated is tangible: “Mariana Cannabis”, an organization which brings together 180 clubs across the country, already says it has 20,000 members.

However, there are no seeds or plants on their land near Leverkusen (south) yet.

The fault lies with the administrative process which involves each club, limited to 500 members, requesting an operating license which can take up to three months to obtain.

“We are impatient, but we still have to wait,” Keno Mennenga, a representative of Mariana Cannabis, told AFP, which is counting on distributions to begin in January.

In Munich, the Cantura cannabis club is already full. Its members have been contributing 25 euros per month since March.

Between the cost of premises, the security system and very energy-intensive cultivation equipment, the necessary investment amounts to hundreds of thousands of euros, according to Fabian Baumann, its president.

The thirty-year-old is also waiting for only one thing to start planting: the operating permit, which he hopes will be issued by October at the latest. “We need about eight weeks between cuttings and harvesting. If all goes well, we will be able to supply cannabis to our members this year. That would be wonderful,” he says.

Fighting trafficking and crime

The German government hopes to combat trafficking and crime by creating a legal circuit.

“The German model plays on progressiveness. There is the idea of ​​being careful and evaluating in real time,” observes Ivana Obradovic, deputy director of the French Observatory of Drugs and Addictive Tendencies (OFDT), and coordinator of a study on the implementation work of legalization in North America

“The idea is to keep control of the supply to prevent it from growing rapidly,” she explains, recalling that one of the paradoxes of legalization in the United States is to have created “a situation of overproduction, particularly in California and Oregon, where production exceeds local demand 5 to 6 times.”

On the other hand, all the countries where legalization has been implemented have observed a decline in the black market, more or less rapid depending on the model.

In Canada, only 40% of cannabis smokers obtained their cannabis from the legal market in the year following legalization in 2018, compared to 75% today, according to figures from the OFDT.

“The black market is in control and it’s getting worse and worse. We can prevent it from getting worse,” assures Keno Mennenga.

Blütezeit, a Berlin-based cannabis startup, hopes that Germany will go even further and allow sales in pharmacies or state-licensed stores in the future.

For Nikolaos Katsaras, head of Blütezeit, only a commercial, competitive and lucrative market can compete with a black market that has been structured for years.

While waiting for this hypothetical legal sale, Blütezeit has brought together an online community of 10,000 members and plans to develop “cannabis clubs”, e-commerce and telemedicine services for medical use of the plant.

Nikolaos Katsaras, a doctor of economics, explains that he “takes the pulse of the market.”

The only fear of this business leader is the legislative elections of 2025 and a change of government.

The leader of the opposition Christian Democrats (CDU), Friedrich Merz, well ahead in voting intentions, announced that he would cancel the legalization of cannabis if his party returned to power.

AFP

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