Newsgroups: alt.drugs,alt.hemp,alt.politics.libertarian,sci.med,talk.politics.drugs,soc.culture.german
From: [m f gordon] at [nyx10.cs.du.edu] (Michael Gordon)
Subject: Re: Germany Legalises Marijuana
Date: Sat, 30 Apr 94 14:41:12 GMT

From The Guardian, a British national newspaper:-


Possession of cannabis is legalised in Germany


Germany's Constitutional Court legalised the possession of small amounts
of hashish or marijuana yesterday.

The decision follows a growing number of cases in which lower courts
have refused to enforce laws banning the possession and use of cannabis.

It brings Germany into line with other European countries, notably
Holland.  "It is an important legal and political signal because it
marks the withdrawal of criminal law from sections of drug policy,"
Wolfgang Neskovic, a Lubeck judge, said yesterday.

It was his court which, in 1991, refused to sentence a woman accused of
smuggling 1.12 grammes of hashish to her husband in prison.

"The ruling only adjusts the legal situation to reality," one expert
said yesterday.

It calls on Germany's federal states to harmonise laws on drug
possession, which vary widely between conservative and social
democrat-ruled states.  In future, possession of "small quantities of
cannabis for occasional personal use" will not be punishable.  Trading
and possession of larger amounts will remain punishable by fines.

Interior ministry figures show that 1,207kg of hashish were confiscated
in Germany in the first three months of this year, double the amount
seized during the same period in 1993.

Professor Winfried Hassemer of Frankfurt university said the hashish ban
had encouraged a thriving black market and led to "enormous profit
margins" for organised crime.

While some commentators warned yesterday that the ruling had neglected
the "damaging social repercussions" of hashish use, others stressed that
alcohol and nicotine were far more serious hazards.

The point was also taken up by the Constitutional Court, which
recognised that the dangers inherent in alcohol abuse "equalled and
sometimes even exceeded" those of cannabis consumption.  But, the court
added, the difference was that with alcohol "intoxication is not the
prime aim".

Statistics show that Germany has 3 million alcoholics, 800,000 people
dependent on medication and 120,000 drug addicts.