Germany’s police call for cannabis to be made legal
Head of detectives’ body says law as it stands merely stigmatises users and fosters criminal careers
THE head of an organisation that represents German police officers has called for consumption of cannabis to be “completely decriminalised”.
André Schulz, head of the Association of German Criminal Officers (BDK), which has around 15,000 police detectives as members, said yesterday that he did not think the current ban on the drug would remain in place in Germany for much longer.
“The prohibition of cannabis has historically been seen as arbitrary and has not yet been implemented in an intelligent and effective manner,” Mr 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 in Germany have been allowed to get medicinal marijuana from doctors, but recreational use remains a crime.
Mr Schulz, a police chief inspector, argues that this stigmatises 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 criticised drug policy in Germany. “The ban has failed,” he told a conference in Berlin last November. Last month, he told the Hamburger 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 German 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 legalised.
The survey, which questioned 1,000 people, found 63 per cent against legalisation, while just 34 per cent said adults should be able to buy the drug, for their own use, in specialist shops.
Mr 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. “Seriously ill people must be treated in the best ways possible,” Hermann Gröhe, Germany’s health minister, said.
In November, a survey with health
‘In the history of mankind, there has never been a society without use of drugs; this has to be accepted’
insurance companies Barmer, Techniker Krankenkasse and Allgemeine Ortskrankenkasse, found that more than 13,000 people had applied to be given the drug for medical purposes in the 10 months since the law changed in March – many more than the yearly 700 that the draft legislation had estimated.
Other countries in Europe have experimented with introducing liberal drug laws, including Portugal, which decriminalised all drugs in 2001.
Cannabis is currently illegal but tolerated in the Netherlands and Dutch law makers also approved legislation a year ago to permit the professional cultivation of marijuana.
In Belgium, personal use, within certain guidelines, is legal for anyone aged over 18. However Belgium will not tolerate Dutch-style coffee shops.
Attitudes in the US are also changing. The drug has been made legal for medical purposes in 29 states, since California led the way in 1996. In Alaska, California, Colorado, Oregon, Nevada and Washington recreational marijuana has also been legalised, within certain guidelines.