First Cannabis Club In Germany Opens, Lawmaker Says It Will Stem Illicit Marker, Cops Say The Opposite

Germany finally opened its first marijuana social club on Monday. Lower Saxony Minister of Agriculture Miriam Staudte announced that the permit was awarded by her office to Social Club Ganderkesee.

The news comes about a week after cannabis clubs became legal in Germany on July 1, 2024.

The new law, which was partially enacted earlier this year, on April 1, made it legal for adults over 18 to possess up to 25 grams of dried cannabis and cultivate up to three marijuana plants at home.

It also allowed adults to join not-for-profit social clubs where they can buy up to 25 grams of cannabis, with a cap of 50 grams per month as of last week. That cap is 30 grams for members under 21 years old. Under the same law, each club can have up to 500 members who can grow, share and enjoy cannabis together.

Marijuana Moment reported that Carmen Wegge, a lawmaker with the Social Democratic Party (SPD), said the cannabis social clubs would help in the fight against the illicit market. "Even if you don't have a particularly green thumb, a CSC is certainly a good alternative.”

Staudte is of a similar opinion. She called the issuance of the first permit a "historic step for consumer protection and controlled cannabis cultivation in Germany."

Read Next: Cannabis Shops Could Launch This Year In Germany For ‘Scientific Purposes,’ Here’s Why UK’s Medical Marijuana Sales Are Soaring

However, the German Police Union is worried that cannabis clubs will be misused. "We fear that criminals from the organized crime sector will use the possibility of growing clubs to expand criminal structures," said Alexander Poitz, deputy head of the police union.

Steffen Geyer, head of the German Cannabis Social Clubs' umbrella organization, said the country is unprepared for such regulatory change, as highlighted in a recent story by Benzinga’'s Rolando García.

Geyer said the bureaucratic process around the application for licenses is uncertain and undetermined. "There will certainly be a mid-three-digit number of clubs applying for a license. How long this will take and how many of them will be successful is still impossible to predict."

Either way, other permits for social clubs where the cultivation of marijuana for its members is legal are expected to shortly follow suit.

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