DThe resistance in the SPD parliamentary group against the planned cannabis legalization is unbroken. According to information from the FAZ, a clearly double-digit number of MPs refused to follow the party leadership's line on Wednesday. Before the parliamentary group meeting, the chairman Rolf Mützenich asked the MPs, with a view to the vote in the plenary session scheduled for Friday, to unanimously agree to the draft law negotiated by the health politicians of the traffic light factions.
In the subsequent debate, numerous MPs expressed their approval of the plan that would allow people over the age of 18 to possess up to 50 grams of cannabis. You can grow this yourself or purchase it as members of so-called social clubs. However, in speeches and the final vote, around two dozen MPs supported the arguments of the two domestic politicians Sebastian Fiedler and Sebastian Hartmann against this form of cannabis legalization.
The two MPs from North Rhine-Westphalia, Fiedler, former chairman of the Association of German Criminal Investigators, and Hartmann, domestic policy spokesman for the SPD parliamentary group, explained in a seven-page letter to all parliamentary group members at the beginning of the week why they did not consider the current draft law capable of approval hold. “Important goals of a modern drug policy, such as combating organized crime, relieving the burden on the regulatory, police and judicial authorities or improving youth protection,” said the two SPD politicians. They referred to the identical assessment of various organizations such as the German Medical Association, the Federal Criminal Police Office, the German Association of Judges and the Conference of the Interior Ministers of the Federal States.
The coalition agreement on your side
Fiedler and Hartmann have the coalition agreement on their side. In December 2021, it was agreed to sell cannabis “for recreational purposes in licensed shops” in order to be able to control quality, prevent the distribution of contaminated substances and ensure the protection of minors. But instead, the health politicians of the traffic light factions, regardless of the domestic and criminal policy concerns from within their own ranks, agreed to legalize the acquisition, possession and public use of the drug to a greater extent than in any other country in Europe. Even in the Netherlands, according to the two SPD politicians, the limit for possession without punishment is five grams. In Germany, however, small-time dealers should be allowed to carry an amount of up to 25 grams, or the amount for around 70 joints.
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD), who took part in the parliamentary group meeting, did not follow the arguments of the two MPs, according to information from the FAZ. By supporting the planned law, she not only stabbed the specialist politicians in her group, but also the Federal Criminal Police Office and the conference of the interior ministers of the federal states.
At the weekend, this warned across party lines about the consequences of the traffic light's planned cannabis legalization and asked the parliamentary group leadership in the Bundestag to refrain from the draft law. State politicians were not heard at the traffic lights. Instead, the Bundestag's agenda was changed at short notice so that the topic will be debated for a good 30 minutes on Friday afternoon and then voted on.
It is currently not certain whether the traffic light factions will achieve their own majority. If there were also opposing votes from the ranks of the Free Democrats and the Greens, the coalition would possibly have to rely on votes from the ranks of the Left Party and the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance.
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