Berlin could soon be enjoying its very own legal marijuana, as the parliament of the trendy and hip Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district voted overwhelmingly in favor of a measure that could see the first legal coffee shop in the country.
After barely a month in office, the then-newly elected Mayor of
the area, the Green Party’s Monika Hermann, came up with the idea
in September to turn her district into a zone free of cannabis
laws, akin to Amsterdam’s coffee shops or Copenhagen’s famed
Christiania district.
The idea was born out of a realization that dealing with drug
crime in the area’s famous Görlitzer Park was simply too much
hassle for authorities, when their time could be better spent
tackling hard drugs and organized crime.
According to Hermann, since the beginning of the year police have
raided the park 113 times, detaining 984 people and launching
criminal proceedings against 310 people.
The result of the district parliament’s vote has been turned into
an application to be submitted to the Federal Institute for Drugs
and Medical Devices. This should turn the infamous Görlitzer Park
into a pilot project for marijuana legalization, the Berliner
Zeitung reported on Friday, following the Green Party’s Thursday
announcement.
The resulting petition was drawn up in cooperation with various
experts, counseling centers and area residents.
“It's not that I want to create a happy drug country,”
Hermann stressed. “But I believe that we can mitigate the
problem of drugs in the park by it.”
She believes that the “ban policy has failed” and that “we
must now think of unusual solutions.”
Although the possession and sale of soft drugs in Germany is
still against the law, police leniency towards pot has been on
the rise, while steps toward its decriminalization have been
taking place since the mid-nineties.
One example of this is that possession of small amounts is no
longer considered a criminal offense, while under the new
proposed law, possession of as much as 15 grams could result in
as little as a slap on the wrist.
There are grey areas everywhere in the application of the law as
well, with the northern part of the country being more relaxed
about the drug than the south, although leniency is evident all
over. And this is a concern for some of Germany’s more leftist
and democratic parties as well, with some of them asserting there
are much harder and more dangerous drugs than pot.
Krezuberg will now seek to iron out the remaining legal issues
with marijuana, including questions relating to who will be the
distributors and sellers.
Noteworthy is the fact that according to Article 3 of the
Narcotics Act, sufficient public interest has the potential to
lead to legalization, provided that reasonable public and
scientific evidence is given.
However, the German authorities don’t seem too thrilled by the
idea of a coffee shop operating at Görlitzer Park.
“Cannabis is not a harmless substance, but holds for many,
especially young people significant health risks,” Christina
Köhler-Azara, Germany’s Drug Commissioner, stressed.
The Health Ministry spokeswoman said that a “drug is a
drug”, and despite the fact that possession of small amounts
of pot is allowed, selling it is still illegal.