Disclaimer: This post was written in May 2024. Since legal texts can be subject to constant changes, the information listed must be checked more closely in individual cases.

Cannabis – controversial, beloved or completely unnecessary, depending on who you ask about the topic. Described by many as a gateway drug, the plant has nevertheless made it onto the pharmacy shelf and is already being used successfully for pain and cancer patients. Many leisure consumers also swear by green gold. But what about the legal situation? On April 1, 2024 the Cannabis law in Germany (CanG) got an update – cannabis is now decriminalized. What was previously only legal with a prescription is now (almost) entirely permitted. You can find out exactly how the cannabis law is structured in Germany, what you are allowed to do and not allowed to do, and what things are like when it comes to driving a car, growing your own home, etc. in our blog post.

Cannabis and Germany: Law, legalization and drug policy

The legalization and decriminalization of cannabis has been hotly debated in Germany since the 90s. Since then, development has come a long way, from legalization for medical purposes in individual federal states to the introduction of medical cannabis in pharmacies and the costs being covered by health insurance companies. However, those who have lost out so far have been leisure consumers. According to Section 29 of the BtMG, until April 2024, possession of cannabis - regardless of the quantity - was a criminal offense and was punished with hefty fines and sometimes even imprisonment, while alcohol is offered for sale by the liter at the checkout in supermarkets.

How the CanG came about

The legalization of cannabis has only been seriously discussed since 2021 and an initial agreement was reached between the SPD, Greens and FDP in the coalition agreement, according to which the supply of cannabis to adults through licensed shops was planned. In 2022, serious work began on one first draft law on cannabis legalization. For this purpose, models from other countries where cannabis was already legal were examined and implementation at the national level was discussed. But it was not until 2023 that the Federal Ministry of Health, led by Karl Lauterbach, presented a first serious draft in which more precise suggestions were made for controlled delivery, quality controls, age limits and requirements for home cultivation. This initial draft was then fleshed out and refined in 2024 and came into force on April 1, 2024 after many years of waiting. The Cannabis law in Germany was passed in the Bundestag on February 23, 2024 - this is how the vote on the cannabis law in Germany turned out in detail:

The first thing you want to do is shout “Hurrah” – before you take a closer look at the regulations. Before we go into the individual sections of the new cannabis law in Germany in more detail, we would like to say: It is a first big step in the right direction and that should not be forgotten, even if the law itself still needs some optimization.

The cannabis law in Germany – current regulations on possession, consumption, etc.

In general, the CanG can be divided into 4 relevant sections: recreational consumption, possession, cultivation and medical consumption. In the table below we have summarized the most important key data in bullet points so that you can get an overview.

Recreational consumption

Basically, everyone is allowed to smoke as much weed as they can - with a few *small* restrictions: The consumption of cannabis by minors is still prohibited in Germany according to the Cannabis Act. Consumption near people who have not yet reached the age of 18 is also not permitted. You have to be particularly careful when it comes to schools, kindergartens and playgrounds: you have to pay absolute attention here: not in sight to consume. Also in pedestrian zones (only between 7 a.m. and 20 p.m.) and – Surprisingly – growing associations are not allowed to consume it.

Side fact: “Visibility” is specified in the legal text as a distance of at least 100 meters.

possession

Possession is quite clearly defined in the cannabis law in Germany: you can carry up to 25 grams with you and you can have up to 50 grams at home. However, these limits only apply to personal use; you are still not allowed to sell or give away cannabis.

It is also important to know that these gram limits refer to everything the plant produces, not just the flowers, but also leaves and other plant material. If you want to stock up significantly more – the winters in Germany are long and hard! – must join a growing association within which the possession of larger quantities is permitted with restrictions. As a member, you are allowed to store more than 25 grams of cannabis here for the purposes of storage and transport in consultation with those responsible.

Growing

Now that possession and consumption have been legalized, but acquisition for recreational consumers is currently still not possible, an interesting section of Germany's cannabis law is the cultivation of cannabis plants: growing cannabis is now permitted. As an adult private individual, you are allowed to have up to three cannabis plants in your home. However, the rule here is that there must be a privacy screen and the neighbors must not feel bothered by the strong smell that the ladies give off when they are in bloom. So if you know that you have more conservative-minded fellow citizens nearby, you should use a grow box with ventilation instead of the balcony. It must also be possible to guarantee that no one is allowed to gain access to the plants without permission or accidentally - the site or area must therefore be cordonable. This mainly plays a role if you grow in your own garden and it is not fenced in.

Medical consumption

There were initially no major changes in medical use. The amount of cannabis is determined by doctors and dispensed by the pharmacy - at regular intervals. It is therefore not necessary to store larger quantities; The pharmacy will take care of that. However, there was one innovation: Cannabis is no longer covered by the BtMG (the Narcotics Act) and, due to the new CanG, a standard prescription is now sufficient instead of a BtMG prescription. Unfortunately, the requirements for doctors are still so unclear and bureaucratic that hardly any doctor wants to take on this process and the new CanG has not made it significantly easier to get a cannabis prescription issued. The following still applies here: All other treatment measures must have been exhausted and even then, mainly severe cases have the opportunity to have a prescription for medical cannabis issued.

Psst: Whether medical or recreational – ours Vaporizer are of course the ideal consumption aid. Browse through our shop and find the vaporizer that suits you (maybe a stilus?). You can also deal with everything else, such as Grinders, cover up.

Cannabis and Germany: What the law doesn't yet know

Of course, a few questions still remain unanswered. For example:

• Now there is the cannabis law - but where do you buy the cannabis?
• What about cannabis on the roads?

And of course, just because ownership is now legal doesn't mean it's actually any easier to purchase. To this end, there will be attempts in the future to allow licensed shops that legally allow the distribution of cannabis in Germany. Of course only to adults. However, it is not clear what the provisions on licenses should look like.

The question of cannabis or THC in traffic also continues to raise question marks in people's minds. Until now, the permitted THC limit was 1 ng/ml blood serum. There are now different suggestions for this, some of which are based on the regulations of other countries, but some of which have not been calculated entirely accurately. The current proposals for the cannabis law in Germany are 3,5 ng/ml blood serum - based on the assumption that an "occasional user" consumes a joint with 1⁄3 cannabis (THC content maximum 10%) once a week. We leave it to our readers to determine how realistic these assumptions are. However, there is still some good news: after the entry into force of the Cannabis law in Germany In most cases, your driver's license can no longer be revoked - only if you got into your car immediately after drinking.