As part of promises of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition government, Germany will partially legalize cannabis from Monday.
However, access to the drug will not be straightforward, according to the laid-down rules.
Starting April 1, it will be legal to carry up to 25 grams of dried cannabis for personal use — enough to roll around 80 joints, depending on how much is used.
Home cultivation will also be permitted, with a limit of up to three plants per adult and 50 grams of dried cannabis.
However, it will remain a taboo to smoke the drug within a 100-metre radius of schools, kindergartens, playgrounds and public sports facilities while smoking will also be banned in pedestrian zones between 7am and 8pm.
‘Cannabis clubs’
Germany is planning to set up regulated cannabis cultivation associations to enable people to obtain the drug legally as from July 1.
The clubs are permitted to have 500 members each and will be able to sell a maximum of 50 grams of dried cannabis per month to each member.
Adults under 21 will be limited to 30 grams of cannabis per month containing no more than 10 percent of the psychoactive substance tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).
Meeting and consuming cannabis at the clubs will not be allowed and membership will be limited to one club at a time.
However, the only legal way to obtain cannabis will be to either cultivate it at home or obtain it through the cannabis clubs, with both options limited to people who have been resident in Germany for at least six months.
The government of Scholz’s Social Democrats, the Greens and the pro-business FDP had originally promised to go further and allow cannabis to be sold in shops, a move that was stopped by the EU.
A second law is being planned to trial the drug’s sale in shops or pharmacies in certain regions.
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