Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP) has contradicted the criticism of the German Association of Judges on the planned law to legalize cannabis. The professional association had stated that the legalization of cannabis would lead to an additional burden on the judiciary.
Buschmann told the newspapers of the Funke media group: “I am very confident that a more pragmatic drug policy will lead to relief for the courts. The skepticism expressed by the judges’ association may also be due to the fact that there are general political reservations about this project.”
Buschmann said his ministry will monitor how the law works in practice. “In general, when people can legally buy and use cannabis, there are fewer cases that end up in court.”
The judges’ association, on the other hand, had declared that the many special rules for cannabis clubs and for the cultivation and sale of the drug, which are to come with legalization, should be checked and violations punished.
Hesse’s Minister of Justice: “complete loss of control”
The interior ministers of North Rhine-Westphalia and Saxony, Herbert Reul and Armin Schuster (both CDU), as well as Hesse’s Minister of Justice Roman Poseck (CDU), are critical of the red-green-yellow federal government’s draft law. “This law will involve a complete loss of control,” Schuster told the editorial network Germany (RND).
Reul warned that the traffic light coalition would not burden the police and judiciary less, but more. Poseck accused the traffic light coalition of having made a “rotten compromise” that “entails disadvantages for all sides”.
This Wednesday, the federal cabinet intends to introduce the law on cannabis legalization. The draft law is to be discussed and approved in the Bundestag after the summer break.
