Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach wants to accompany the planned legalization of cannabis with a major prevention campaign. “As the traffic light government, we absolutely agree that a dramatic strengthening of addiction prevention is necessary, especially in the area of children and young people,” said the SPD politician in the “Spiegel” format “Top Talks”.
“If we do that, we’ll come up with a huge campaign,” emphasized Lauterbach. “We will explain, for example, that children and young people who start smoking weed (…) have a much lower probability of still being able to get their Abitur. They will study less often, they will often not be able to cope with the addiction. “
The traffic light coalition wants to allow adults to possess up to 25 grams of cannabis in the future. Growing a maximum of three plants yourself should also be legal. In addition, the federal government wants to allow the cultivation and sale of the drug in cannabis clubs, which are also allowed to hand over “seven seeds or five cuttings” for self-cultivation. The originally planned specialist cannabis shops, in which intoxication products could be freely sold to adults, will not come about for the time being because this was met with resistance from the EU in Brussels.
The government argues that the project aims to increase the protection of minors, reduce the black market and cut the ground for crime.
The addiction expert Rainer Thomasius criticized the project in the “Spiegel” interview. He pointed out that the number of regular users in the USA had increased with legalization in some states. “And Mr. Lauterbach’s draft law will also mean that we will have more consumers in Germany in the future – including young people.”