“Negative for child protection”
Pediatricians are calling for a withdrawal from the cannabis law
March 19, 2024, 4:38 a.m
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The cannabis law is facing a turbulent week. Some black-governed federal states want to bring down legalization in the Federal Council. Meanwhile, pediatricians strongly recommend that Traffic Light take the controversial project out of circulation itself.
Before the crucial Federal Council meeting on the controversial cannabis law, the Federal Association of Pediatricians and Adolescents (BVKJ) called on the federal government to stop its plans. “The federal government should withdraw the law,” said association president Michael Hubmann to the newspapers of the Funke media group. “She doesn’t see the legitimate objections of doctors and lawyers.” Hubmann warned of the negative consequences of legalization for the protection of minors. “We can already see with alcohol and nicotine that this does not work in real life, he said. Consumption is easily possible without any problem bypassing the legal rules. “Protection and control will not be easier if a third substance is now added with the legalization of cannabis comes.”
The law will finally come before the Federal Council on Friday. It doesn’t require approval there, but the state chamber could call the joint mediation committee with the Bundestag and thereby slow down the process. According to the law already passed by the Bundestag, possession and cultivation of the drug, with numerous requirements, should be permitted for adults to consume themselves from April 1st.
Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach had previously stated that he wanted to avert a possible failure of the legalization of cannabis on April 1st. He will fight throughout the week to ensure that the Federal Council’s mediation committee is not called this Friday. Lauterbach complained about plans by Union-led states such as Bavaria and Saxony to delay or sabotage legalization by referring it to the mediation committee. The SPD minister referred to a statement by Saxony’s Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer, who had written on X that his goal was that the law never again comes out of the mediation committee of the Bundestag and Bundesrat.
Sabotage with procedural tricks
The legal policy spokeswoman for the SPD parliamentary group, Carmen Wegge, accused the Union of poor democratic style. “To be honest, I find that quite frightening – no Democrats behave like that,” she told the “Augsburger Allgemeine”. She accused the Union of wanting to call the Mediation Committee purely tactically and of wanting to stop legalization through procedural tricks.
Concerns have been raised by the federal states, among other things, about a planned amnesty for old cases that would no longer be punishable under the new law. There are fears that the judiciary will be overburdened by the resulting case reviews.