Germany's Justice Ministers Want To Postpone Cannabis Legalization, Citing Thousands Of Amnesty & Expungement Cases

Following Germany’s recent partial cannabis legalization, Justice Ministers from various states joined together to push for postponing its enactment from April 1 to October, according to a statement made by Lower Saxony’s Justice Minister Kathrin Wahlmann, reported Apotheke Adhoc.

Justice ministers argue that the judicial system will be burdened with thousands of cases of people seeking retroactive amnesty or expungement, said Wahlman who also chairs the Conference of Justice Ministers.

"In Lower Saxony alone, we anticipate over 16,000 files due to the proposed amnesty, which will need to be manually reviewed by our already overburdened staff – nationally, this figure is significantly higher," Wahlman said, writes CannaBizEu. 

Last week, another Justice Minister Christian Heinz asked for a fundamental revision of the new law and requested the involvement of the mediation committee. According to Heinz, there are important technical concerns to be looked at.

Under Germany's partial cannabis legalization, known as the CanG bill, cannabis was removed from the Narcotics Act where it was listed as a banned substance such as heroin and other drugs where it was subject to specific criminal provisions.

The new law will allow adults over 18 to possess 25 grams for personal consumption and in public spaces. Consumers could keep 50 grams of dried marijuana in their private apartments. Home growing of a maximum of three plants and cannabis clubs for non-commercial cultivation will be legal. Benjamin Lambach, Justice Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia expressed a similar stance.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Karl Lauterbach warned the delays could result in the reform's failure, and that it is in the interest of justice for the law to take effect on April 1st. 

Shortly after the German parliament approved CanG various marijuana giants spoke with Benzinga about what this means for cannabis in Europe and shared their projections and expectations about the market. Industry vets highlighted significant benefits for medical marijuana patients. 

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