Federal Minister of Health Prof. Karl Lauterbach:
Madam President! My dear colleagues!
First of all: it is very important that we have this debate. It’s a reasonable debate. We must look at the law soberly, without polemics and without malice. I would therefore like to take this opportunity to seek conversation. It’s not supposed to be a campaign speech.
First of all, it is very clear: this is controversial legislation; because we have fundamentally changed our drug policy regarding cannabis. We have moved away from a prohibition policy and towards legalization, education and improving safety.
What is the background to this approach? The background to this approach can be described as follows: Without this legislation, consumption has increased steadily over the last ten years.
In the period from 2018 to 2021 – in just three years – we had a very strong increase in young people, in adults, in older people.
In Bavaria it is now the case that 27 percent of young people in the age group of 18 to 24 have already consumed something during the year – one in four! Cannabis is everywhere! When you walk through the streets in the evening you can see it and you can smell it. Consumption among 60 to 64 year olds has doubled in just a few years. This means that cannabis consumption is a reality.
This consumption has become increasingly dangerous in recent years. In the period before this reform, consumption became more dangerous because the dosages became higher and the concentrations increased. There are toxic additives. This means that cannabis consumption is everywhere, even without the reform, and it is becoming more and more dangerous.
Drug crime has continued to rise over the years. Why is that? Because only criminals currently have a monopoly on sales.
Only criminals sell in Bavaria. They only allow criminals to sell. I also want to say this with this clarity: the Dutch Mocro clans, for example, are the result of failed drug policy.
Because only these clans have been able to sell so far. These are your clans.
In principle, if I can put it that way to my colleagues in the Union, it is a double failure: Firstly. Consumption has steadily increased. And secondly: in your responsibility for the Interior Ministry, you failed to get these clans, your clans, under control.
You are now trying to offload this responsibility… Mr. Dobrindt, on a reform that cannot yet have any effect because you yourself do not guarantee and are blocking the implementation of cannabis clubs for legal production. They are blocking the reform that would be the solution, and at the same time they are not getting the problem under control. That’s the truth. I also honestly ask you not to take people for fools.
Consumption is there, it was there. He has no legal source. As long as there is no legal source, there will be contamination, there will be toxic concentrations, there will be drug crime. – You have no concept. What would have been the Union’s concept of getting these problems under control?
They say: The ban must remain. Do you really want to seriously say that the 27 percent of 18 to 24 year olds who consume in Bavaria are all criminals, all delinquents? That’s not the truth. The truth is: someone who drinks every now and then and is aware of the risks is no more criminal than someone who drinks a bottle of wine every evening. It’s wrong to criminalize these people.
Therefore: The criminals are not the users, but the criminals are those who, thanks to their failure, sell cannabis, who do not pay taxes, who add additives and try to make people addicted to other drugs. These are the actual criminals and not the people who consume.
If you look at who did something notable in the fight against drug-related crime, you realize that it was actually Federal Interior Minister Faeser because she expanded investigative powers. You complain, but you haven’t been able to get crime in the drug community under control for years.
The study situation – I want to make this clear here – is this: Where cannabis was decriminalized, where there was an alternative to the black market, consumption did not increase. It didn’t rise in Canada. It didn’t rise in Colorado. It has not increased in the states of the United States where legalization has taken place. This data is available. There is no evidence at all that legalization increases consumption.
Therefore, it is only a matter of making existing consumption safer, decriminalizing existing consumption, both among consumers and dealers.
All I can say is: If we give this law a fair chance and don’t try to come up with recipes that didn’t work in the past, then we’ll see that too. We are evaluating this law.
There is hardly any law that is evaluated more thoroughly than this law. That is also correct. What I say here must be proven. – Yes, we evaluate the law. – Your failure is evaluated; we just talked about that. We evaluate this law like no other law. We will combat consumption among children and young people by all means possible. We have tightened the rules for this.
We will monitor consumption among children and young people. We will monitor overall consumption. We will monitor crime.
This is a law that deserves a chance.
Let me conclude by saying: The path we have taken so far with cannabis has failed. The consumers are not criminals, the dealers are. If you really want to achieve something for drug policy, then put forward proposals where it really matters, namely crack, cocaine, tranq, heroin. Where are your suggestions?
Today would have been the opportunity to talk about your concepts for the drugs that really harm people, both those who use them and third parties.
Cannabis use is a reality. Criminalization makes no sense. She has failed in the past.
We must therefore give this law a chance and combat large-scale drug consumption and drug-related crime, as Interior Minister Faeser suggested to you.
Thank you.
