German police call for legalized cannabis use

BERLIN • The head of an organization that represents German police officers has called for consumption of cannabis to be “completely decriminalized.”

Andre Schulz, head of the Association of German Criminal Officers (BDK), which has around 15,000 detectives as members, said Monday that he did not think the current ban on the drug would remain in place much longer.

“The prohibition of cannabis has historically been seen as arbitrary and has not yet been implemented in an intelligent and effective manner,” Schulz told Bild newspaper. “In the history of mankind, there has never been a society without use of drugs; this is something that has to be accepted,” he said.

Since last March, some patients have been allowed to get medicinal marijuana from doctors, but recreational use remains a crime.

Schulz, a chief inspector, argues that this stigmatizes people and “allows criminal careers to start.” Instead, he argues, the country should focus on helping addicts, protecting children and young people and promoting responsible drug use.

“There are better options in drug policy than relying largely on repression,” he said.

It is not the first time Schulz, 47, has criticized drug policy in Germany.

“The ban has failed,” he told a conference in Berlin last November. Last month, he told the Hamburg Morgenpost that the fight against drugs caught the wrong people and used up too much police manpower. “In 70 per cent of drug cases, police deal with consumers, not with dealers,” he said.

However, the public may not agree. A study carried out by Forsa, a research institute, in November, found most German respondents didn’t want recreational use to be legalized.

The survey, which questioned 1,000 people, found 63 per cent against legalization, while just 34 per cent said adults should be able to buy the drug, for their own use, in specialist shops.

Schulz does want it to still be an offence to drive after consuming cannabis, but pointed to current “uncertainties and loopholes in the law” for motorists. Cannabis users can have their licence taken away even if they have not driven while intoxicated, which is not the case for alcohol.

Germany’s parliament made medicinal marijuana legal in January 2017. The law said patients with serious illnesses, such as cancer, multiple sclerosis or chronic pain, could pick up prescriptions from their doctors.

While recreational cannabis use is to become legal in Canada this summer, other countries in Europe have experimented with introducing liberal drug laws, including Portugal, which decriminalized all drugs in 2001.