Tag Archives: activist

February 5, 2020

THC Not AfD: Germans Protest on the Front Lines of Change

By Marguerite Arnold

Braving the chill and rain, over 200 German activists gathered in the German dorf (small town or village) of Lahr on the first Saturday of Febuary, protesting for more comprehensive laws for the controlled distribution and legalization of cannabis. As the local media was quick to point out, this was the first demonstration of its kind in the town.

It was a strategically planned demonstration at a time when the rules are changing, and challenges from law enforcement and regulatory agencies, are growing in Germany. Just in other words, as police are challenging hemp sellers from Spain and Italy to France last year, the battle has come to pot shops and patients alike over the last four years.

The UK is in its just post-Brexit heyday, but the free for all so far on CBD is not likely to proceed without further police involvement. The rules are just not stable enough yet.

On the ground in Germany in early February, no matter how small or inconsequential it might have looked to outsiders, in other words, this protest also appears to have been carefully staged to bring attention to big issues that remain on the ground. In Europe generally, and Germany specifically.

Chanting “Cannabis Normal” and “THC not AfD” (a reference to a far-right political group that has seen a rapid rise in Germany over the same period of time that cannabis has legalized here and who also opposes cannabis generally), the peaceful demonstration was upbeat, cheerful and polite with the same kinds of street theatre seen in local legalization marches since the 1960s.

As a result, and very much a populist as well as a political movement beyond the plant itself, cannabis protests and legalization have taken place within that environment in Germany so far, with some interesting hybrids.

In fact, the march organizers specifically thanked the police for their protection during the event (common at German hemp parades), and further specifically linked a legal cannabis industry to a safer, less violent society. One of the organizers, indeed was also there to promote the opening of his new CBD shop.

The specific link to peace and a peaceful society is a theme that has not yet seen much global conversation in the new cannabis industry, but it is here in spades in the German market. Particularly as Germans respond to the rise in terrorist attacks here over the last seven years by supporting the banning of a Neo Nazi terror group (Combat 18 on January 23 – the same day as the allies liberated Auschwitz 75 years ago).

A new hybrid approach that specifically links public activism and peaceful free speech about cannabis to legal economic activity.As the conversation about many of these themes auf Deutsch, including the strong Israeli and Jewish presence in the global cannabis industry, continues to expand, it is taking on a very interesting tenor. Yes, Germans are as keen as anyone to be entrepreneurial, and have extra money to spare on consumer goods. But core to the German soul is also a conservative, thrifty approach to all things. Cannabis is one of the few “consumer goods” if not “medication” that appears to be challenging the rules if not culture in ways Germans are still interpreting.

One of the most powerful things about cannabis is its ability to heal. Many different kinds of wounds. And at least to Germans that is the way things are moving politically if not in the world of business. If this plant, in other words, can lower the national healthcare bill, take better care of Germans and create tax revenue that keeps the trains running on time, not to mention somehow ties into “clean” and “green” living, Germans are all for it. And in ways that are certainly “populist.”

That conversation, however delayed by North American standards, is now fully underway auf Deutschland. However, within that, there are all kinds of shades of green, if not purple. From the leaves and buds of the plant, to the political persuasions of those who advocate for its final, full and equal introduction into society, this is also a revolution that is now fully underway and picking up supporters.

Even, en masse, in a tiny town on the edge of Bavaria and via a very interesting new hybrid approach that specifically links public activism and peaceful free speech about cannabis to legal economic activity.

November 7, 2019

Bremen Steps Up Its Cannabis Campaign As Other Groups Lobby For More Access

By Marguerite Arnold

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The German city of Bremen (perhaps you know it from the Brothers Grimm and the animal musicians) is determined to force the federal German government to play another tune when it comes to basic access within the city.

For those without the special geographic knowledge that comes with being a “local” this is also a deliberately strategic political move. Bremen, like Berlin, is a strange German hybrid, a city-state.

Change here, of course, like Berlin, would have wide impact on other German states.

It is not a new campaign of course. None of these city campaigns for home-grow really are. They are the result of efforts, at this point with elected officials involved, of literally decades of patient activists, who are still necessary. But this time, they have politicians involved. When the national ones don’t listen, the local ones are being dragged in.

That said, don’t expect any breakthroughs or miracles from Bremen or Berlin either right now for that matter. This experiment, in Bremen just like the country’s capital, is still at least several years off, no matter its regular recycling in news stories for the last several years.

Politically right now it is hard to understand the CDU’s continued reluctance to embrace the weed. The CDU is Germany’s strongest and largest “middle of the road” party. Particularly because they along with everyone else of alternative political persuasions are highly alarmed by the right wing AfD’s popularity and spread. It is not inconceivable that even Germany’s largest if not highly beleaguered party might use a little cannabis to stop that. And they are being pushed, hard now, by the fringes.

The Outpricing Of The Patient Movement

Talk to any cannabis-connected company right now and chances are you will hear the phrase “patient first.”

That means nothing in an environment where most patient groups are kept out of the room when legislation opening markets is being written (certainly in Europe). And of course, it is precisely the individuals that these groups represent who cannot afford the legal medication hitting the markets early.

Here, because of the focus on high-quality, GMP-certified product, the chances of a patient collective actually being able to afford a cultivation license (for example) are so far non-existent.

As a result, there is an active foment on the ground right now in almost every country in Europe. This is meeting other kinds of frustration right now and that can be a powerful weapon for change. However, without funded lobbyists in most European capitals and Brussels, there is more power and money behind the established industry right now to keep the (almost) status quo.

As strange as they seem to the cannabis industry right now, GMP certification is a standard pharmaceutical designation.

The boogeymen in the room right now, in other words, for every strong patient group, with its own grey market distribution channels, are the well-funded companies who are in fact getting the laws to change.

Patients, in these environs, as well as their concerns, are left out entirely.

The Strength of The European Gray Market

For this very reason, the gray market problem is going to be large in Europe for quite some time to come. Patients are effectively priced out of the legitimate market if they cannot get insurer approvals and for most that is still the biggest problem in the room.

Are there large gray market grows all over Europe? Yes. As one German activist told Cannabis Industry Journal recently, echoing the comments and practices of thousands of others, “Yes, they made me jump through the hoops, and I have packaging from all the big guys. That’s how I carry my home grow these days.”

Forget “patient cards” that some enterprising distributors are trying to get patients to carry.

The cops don’t challenge legit packaging. And every producer, distributor and patient knows that. Buy once, no matter how exorbitant, and that is all she wrote.

For that reason, “patient numbers” if not “sales” actually mean very little.

It does not matter, in other words, if a cannabis company announces its market entry in any country right now. What matters is that they can prove consistent supply and sales and real patient numbers – which if GDPR (European privacy legislation) is strictly followed, producers and distributors should never really know at a level that such sales are trackable per patient.

And that is where this all gets difficult down in the weeds.

Are there large gray market grows all over Europe? Yes. Are they all under the purview of the criminal black market? No. There are very organized patient non-profit networks locally in just about every city and town in Europe. If not other places.

And, where those fail, certainly in Germany, there is always the area around every local train station. If you are hard up enough and desperate enough, skunk and hash albeit of an indeterminate source, will cost you about $12 per gram.

There is no cannabis company in the room anywhere in Europe that can provide legit product via any pharmacy, for that price at point of sale. Yet. And therein, as always, lies the rub.

French flags blowing in the wind in Le Havre

February 19, 2018

France Considers Fining Cannabis Possession

By Marguerite Arnold

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The French have always been known for possessing a certain national savoire faire. In English, that translates to a phrase meaning innate understanding of how to do things with a certain amount of panache, if not bonhomie. International diplomacy was long conducted in French as a result.

However, when it comes to the famed French silver tongue or sophistication on the cannabis issue, and well, not so much. As is widely acknowledged, even by the French, the country is stuck in the Dark Ages when it comes to cannabis. Almost literally. Including having the strictest and harshest penalties for possession anywhere in Europe. Such penalties do not include a stint in the Bastille. But they can involve prison time, and they are ridiculously harsh. Quelle Horreure! Not mention, Vive la Revolution!

Nobody has said (yet) “Let them eat spice cake.” But France is now clearly an outlier in a continent moving towards cannabis reform of (at least) the medical and decriminalized kind.The most recent statistics suggest that 17 million French people have tried cannabis.

And herein lies the French paradox. Despite the highest per capita usage of any European country, French cannabis consumers have not turned into effective advocates on the political front.

Why not?

How High Are The French?

The most recent statistics suggest that 17 million French people have tried cannabis. 1.4 million use it regularly, about half of those on a daily basis. And here is the exciting (read: terrifying part). Users (not dealers) face up to a year in prison on the first offense, plus a fine of 3,750 euros (about $4,000).

Mon Dieu! Who on earth do the French think they are? A southern American state? One that probably actually banned “French” fries during a dull day at the state ‘lege when politically inspired to do so a few years back?

But even that epithet doesn’t cut it anymore in an environment where Florida is getting in on the action, and the first medical dispensary just opened in Texas.

It is also not like the French big wigs also do not know they are out of step. France’s boyish president, now in office for about a year, Emmanuel Macron, promised decriminalization by the end of 2017 (it didn’t happen). Now a new parliamentary report, released, fittingly on Valentine’s Day, recommends swapping out the current draconian punishments for a fixed fine of between 150-200 euros ($250) per offense. The report also specifically concludes that current legislation is not working.

In 2015, there were 64,000 drug related convictions in France. 40,000 were for use, not dealing. While just over 3,000 of those convicted actually served a prison sentence, even the more conservative aspects of French society have had enough.

Like Germany recently, where the head of the country’s largest police union came out last week for decriminalization, the French police do not want to continue a charade that results in more paperwork for them, rather than a real shift in policy with concrete results. And now, neither do its politicians.

don’t expect this current diplomatic impass to hold for long, even if it gains enough traction to get passed into federal law.In an environment where political gridlock is the name of the game, however, it is very clear that cannabis is just one more issue dropped into a toxic mix that also includes topics like “what’s up in the EU.” Not to mention the nascent separatist and populist sentiments of neighbours like Spain and Germany. Countries, ironically, also far ahead of France on the cannabis front.

The hope of French activists on the ground is that cannabis is actually caught on the right side of history now. Even if, finally, it is changing the law to decriminalize the drug and only penalize patients (and others) with a ticket.

That too, is unlikely to succeed, as many such experiments elsewhere have failed before. That said, it is clearly a step in the right direction and an inevitable one at that.

Caught in the Middle

The great irony of this of course, is what is happening as France becomes an unwilling partner in the cross-border cannabis ménage-a-trois now afoot thanks to changing medical cannabis laws elsewhere in the EU. Namely, cannabis may remain off the reform agenda to parliamentarians and out of reach to the average French patient. That said, cross-continental transport of the drug will inevitably create a situation where a significant amount of cannabis products consumed by medical users elsewhere in the EU is trucked and or trained across France while out of reach to the locals.

Portugal and Spain are shaping up to be low-cost producers to the West. On the East, Germany, Switzerland and increasing numbers of Eastern European countries are looking for cheap product. That means there is going to be a great deal of medical grade cannabis crossing the continent by way of French territory. There is already a trickle. It is about to become a flood. What happens to reform in a country clearly caught in the middle?

As a result, don’t expect this current diplomatic impass to hold for long, even if it gains enough traction to get passed into federal law.

French cannabis policy is far from a la mode. Even to its own citizens. And on this issue, for sure, absolutely old fashioned in the most un-French way possible.

February 12, 2018

Head of German Police Union Calls for Official Decriminalization of Cannabis

By Marguerite Arnold

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Facing the same conundrum as police everywhere after the start of a medical market only this time with federal authorization, the head of the German police union has called for recreational use of cannabis to also be decriminalized.

On the first Monday of February, the head of the BDK – the Association of German Criminal Officers told The Bild (sort of like the New York Post but a national “tabloid” here) that his group, the largest organized union of German police officers, favoured a change in German cannabis laws. Andre Schulz argued that the current laws stigmatized those charged with minor amounts and created opportunities for “criminal careers to start.”

“The prohibition of cannabis has historically been seen as arbitrary and has not yet been implemented in an intelligent and effective manner,” says Schulz. “My prediction is that cannabis will not be banned for long in Germany.”

Why this sudden pronouncement? It is actually not all that sudden and has been long in the offing. One of the largest contingents at both the ICBC and the IACM last year (the biggest cannabis-focussed business and medical conferences in Germany) were police officers from California and Deutschland. And all were singing the same tune.

However beyond a realistic assessment of changing political reality, there are actually several other concrete reasons for not only the statement but the timing of it. In a country where patients can now pick up bud cannabis from the local apotheke (which is that easy for some, although it is still hard for most), the police have the unappetizing prospect of potentially arresting patients. On top of that, the idea of someone being arrested for CBD flower (rather than THC) gives the German polizei plenty of pause. Not to mention that they face this possibility at a time when many of them potentially could be patients themselves (or their families). The idea of arresting an activist in this situation is also one the police do not relish. Legalization rallies here get formal police protection when they march. Ask the average beat cop what they think about cannabis legalization and they tend to roll their eyes.

Then there is this: In stark contrast to the wars over prescribing medical cannabis at a state level in California in the late 90’s, here in Germany, there is a cultural commitment to the concept of sick people having a moral and civil right to obtain the medication they require. The idea of the police arresting them in the process of obtaining the same or because they might be recreational users, is as antithetic to core German sensibilities as the concept of Donald Trump as U.S. President. So is the idea of branding someone a “criminal” if not “drug user” for possession of a drug that is now used as medicine in Germany.

As has been rumoured for some time now, one of the few things that all political parties in Berlin can agree on is a change on the current cannabis laws.As a result, the very idea of both arresting the sick or labelling someone for the rest of their life with a police record for a drug “crime” that nobody considers as such anymore, causes a shock to the system. In many ways, German culture is far more conservative than the U.S. On another, there is a deeply humanistic, liberal strain to German life that also allows nudity, alternative healthcare and lifestyles to flourish (and not just all in Berlin). The current situation over cannabis, in other words, is becoming a political and legal embarrassment even to the beat officers who have to implement such laws.

And then of course there is this: One of the country’s top judges, Andreas Müller, a man well-known to the senior level of BDK, has recently written a book about the horrible situation that faces his own brother because of drug laws in Germany called “Kiffen und Kriminalität.”

Cannabis also falls into this crevice of cultural questioning if not the national zeitgeist of the moment, in multiple ways. It is, beyond the stigma, a natural medicine that is now federally recognized as such and one that the statutory health insurers (public healthcare) is required to cover. No matter that only 64% of submitted rezepts have been formally approved 11 months into Germany’s foray into this world. There are doctors writing them. And there are insurers picking up the tab.

It also means that there are at least 10,000 legal medical cannabis patients that der polizei have no wish to bother. And 10,000 German patients, who look the same as anyone else, are already too many legal users for current laws to stay in place.

Decriminalization, Cultivation & Changing Culture

There are some who say that Europe is “backwards” if not slower than the United States. Certainly those who experience German culture as Auslanders are struck by the procedural requirements of everyday life. Things do move slower here.

However when things do move, they are determinative shifts. Right now, it is impossible to live in the country and not be aware that Kiffen – a slang term for pot auf Deutsch – is legalizing in the U.S., Canada, the rest of Europe and of course other places. Further, Germans with their distrust of bureaucracy and authority and certainly currently rebellious mood, are looking to a way forward for the country in a sea of uncertainty both locally and regionally not to mention globally on any issue, no matter how “symbolic.”

As has been rumoured for some time now, one of the few things that all political parties in Berlin can agree on is a change on the current cannabis laws. The idea of decriminalization, now suggested by one of the country’s top cops, is a natural solution to political deadlock, if not a changing society.

The idea that other countries are also moving on this topic, from the now Brexiting UK to France next door, not to mention all the cultivation focused reform in many European countries, seems to indicate that decriminalization and even recreational reform are coming and now officially on the schedule, and not just to Germany but the entire continent.