The traffic light coalition has long since abandoned its plan to allow the sale of cannabis in licensed specialist shops nationwide. Now the announced model experiments are also in danger of failing. Meanwhile, the Union is getting into position.
When the leading Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD) and the Green Minister of Agriculture Cem Özdemir presented the roadmap for the cannabis project on April 12, 2023 , one thing was clear: the comprehensive cannabis legalization promised at the beginning of the legislative period will not happen. In the coalition agreement, the SPD, Greens and FDP had announced a "controlled distribution of cannabis to adults for recreational purposes in licensed stores", as is the case in some US states, for example.
What the coalition partners had not taken into account when making this bold announcement was that if the state allowed the sale of cannabis for recreational purposes in shops or pharmacies licensed by it, it might be violating international law and certainly EU law. The traffic light coalition had long ignored corresponding advice from lawyers . Apparently the EU Commission had also indicated to the federal government that its plan violated Union law such as the Schengen Implementation Agreement and that Germany could therefore face infringement proceedings under Article 258 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the Union (TFEU).
In order to avoid a legal disaster before the ECJ as happened with the car toll , Lauterbach and Özdemir scaled down the legalization plan to a two-pillar model.