The Berlin public transport company BVG surprised in mid-December with an advertising campaign just before Christmas: its communication department promoted with a corporate video a “hemp bill” that could be ingested after use. Sprinkled with a few drops of plant oil, the video suggested that its intake relaxed the user in the days leading up to Christmas, so marked by the stress of shopping and preparing for family commitments. The hemp oil used However, it did not contain the active principle of THC – a psychotropic component – nor that of CBD -component with medicinal and relaxing applications.
Despite the fact that the BVG leadership has emphasized that its applauded campaign was not intended to promote the use of cannabis or marijuana-derived products, nor to take sides in the current debate on legalization From its recreational use, it is evident that the video reflects the spirit of the time that the country lives with respect to a plant reviled for decades by the majority of an essentially conservative society.
The recent arrival to the Government of the ‘semaphore coalition ‘ has brought with him a change of course. After 16 consecutive years of governments led by the conservative union of the CDU-CSU, which has historically led the frontal rejection of a possible legalization recreational use of marijuana and hashish, the Social Democrats of the SPD, The Greens and the Liberals of the FDP they come to power with a diametrically opposite speech: “We will introduce the controlled sale of cannabis for adults for recreational purposes in licensed premises”, it can be read in the Government agreement signed by the three formations, which continues: “In this way, the quality will be controlled, the delivery of contaminated substances will be avoided and the protection of the youth will be guaranteed “.
Open questions
The tripartite intends to approve the legalization throughout this legislature to, after four years in force, review the effects it has had on society. It is taken for granted that the law will go ahead, since Social Democrats, Greens and Liberals have a comfortable parliamentary majority and, most likely, they will also receive the votes of the post-communists of The left.
The proposal of the new German Government is, however, a simple declaration of intent on which lack to know many details. “There are still many issues to be clarified such as, for example, quality assurance, taxes and cultivation. Basically, we still do not know anything about the legalization process. We start from the assumption that it will last about two years”, assures El newspaper de Catalunya Jürgen Neumeyer, general secretary of the Cannabis Economy Sector Association.
Neumeyer’s organization is working on recommendations for avoid errors committed in other countries that have already traveled the path of legalization -or decriminalization- such as Canada, some federal states of the USA or Uruguay. When the legalization of recreational consumption is brought to the table, the dutch model. “In the Netherlands there has not really been a legalization, but rather a decriminalization that allows consumption and tolerates sale,” says Neumeyer. “However, cultivation and production are still there uncontrolled, which means that they are even in the hands of organized crime. This is an unthinkable and unwanted model for Germany,” says the German expert over the neighboring country.
Taxes and savings
Neumeyer assumes that the german model it will mean that the entire cultivation and manufacture of cannabis for recreational use takes place within the country. Beyond public health, security and even the moral dimension that the matter entails, the possible legalization is presented as a huge economic opportunity for Germany given his powerful domestic market –and the possibility of exporting to other countries is currently excluded.
A recently published study by economists Justus Haucap and Leon Knoke of the Heinrich-Heine University of Düsseldorf projects a profit of almost 5,000 million euros per year for the German State if the legalization of recreational consumption – medical use is already legal – ends up being applied.
The study contemplates tax revenue -more than 2,000 million-, in quotes generated by the creation of around 27,000 jobs -more than 500 million-, the savings in police and judicial expenses derived from the persecution of the consumption and trafficking of marijuana and hashish -more than 1,000 million-, among other financial dimensions. This projection considers that the guarantee of a price of sale in the legal market not too superior to that of the black market would be a practically total reduction in illegal sales of cannabis.
Agrarian sector
“Many farmers are already prepared to grow hemp”, recently assured the Federal Minister of Agriculture, the green Cem Özdemir, in an interview with the tabloid Bild Zeitung, Germany’s best-selling and most widely read newspaper. “The CDU will no longer be able to prohibit us. It is time for the madness of cannabis prohibition to end,” said the eco-liberal politician in reference to the passage to the parliamentary opposition of the Christian Democrats.
While the conservative political sectors continue to reject the measure on the grounds that legalizing recreational cannabis will more easily open the door to the use of harder drugs and that the black market will persist, the new government tries to impose the framework of economic benefits in the political debate. Jürgen Neumeyer has no doubts about it: “I think the number of jobs will be higher than the 27,000 projected by Haucap due to all the additional sectors. Its projection is very good, but also conservative. The potential market for cannabis is huge in Germany.” .
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Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.