BERLIN (DPA, CONVERSEER) – The consumption of cannabis should be controlled more strictly in Germany, while remaining legal, the government representative on the issue said in media remarks published on Tuesday.
“We are currently seeing evidently undesirable trends,” Narcotic Drugs Commissioner Hendrick Streeck told the Berlin daily Tagesspiegel.
The permitted 25 grams of medical cannabis was far too high, he argued.
“Nobody needs 150 joints in their pockets,” said Streeck, a virology professor and epidemiologist.
Germany’s approximately 5 million regular cannabis consumers needed to be lured away from the black market, he said, while raising questions about privately grown cannabis being passed on to friends.
This remained illegal, he noted, and if this sector expanded, it meant the black market was growing by another name.
Cannabis prescriptions have soared since partial legalisation in April 2024, and imports have risen fivefold. Streeck lashed out at remote diagnosis and treatment loopholes, criticising “dealers in white coats.”
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Two weeks ago, the government proposed stiffer rules, including a ban on medical cannabis by mail order. In future, prescriptions are to require personal contact between doctor and patient, along with advice from a pharmacist when receiving the cannabis.
Health Minister Nina Warken has announced consultations in parliament on adjustments to the cannabis law.
Streeck told the Tagesspiegel that there had to be strict separation between cannabis for leisure consumption and prescribed cannabis, with the same standards applied to medical cannabis as to other medications.
“Anything else would be the Wild West,” he said.
The protection of young people was a key concern, he noted. In the past, minors found to be consuming cannabis were automatically contacted by addiction officials, a practice that ended with the partial legalisation, Streeck said.
