2024

The current hour in the Bundestag

On 15 November 2024, the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the German Bundestag convened a topical debate on the effects of the Konsum-Cannabis-Gesetz, KCanG, on internal security. The list of speakers was long, and too many of those who took to the microphone used their time exclusively for election campaign posturing.

The CDU/CSU once again made the refuted claims that the KCanG would lead to more crime, more violent offenses and more work for the judiciary. It seems logical to them, that the black market will explode with the permitted possession quantities and that organized crime will experience an upswing, new markets will emerge that will be brutally fought over, as can currently be seen in NRW.

In addition, the judiciary is badly overburdened by the old cases that have to be processed in order to review the judgements in the light of the KCanG. Justice only if it does not do any work, according to the statement by the Senator for Justice in Berlin, Ms Badenberg, CDU, who complained about the extra work in her department and also made the false claim that the KCanG would lead to more crime. As a senator in the capital of stoners, the lady should be more familiar with reality. It remains unclear how she comes up with an additional burden on the judiciary when, according to the Federal Police, 180 000 fewer proceedings are to be expected each year, all related to consumers.

During the debate, most of the people sitting on the Union bench were from the CSU, a far right party that governs Bavaria for 67 years without interruption, and part of the party-union with CDU, who went to great lengths to mock the federal government and ridicule its factual arguments. The members of the CDU had gone to get coffee after the opening of the meeting, as had most of the other members. A clear sign.

The representatives of the neo-Nazi party pretended to be tolerant of cannabis, only to present irrelevant arguments against the federal government in their speeches and present themselves as dashing campaigners. They were not the only ones. Even a representative of the party of the cultivated personality cult, BSW, felt called upon to step up to the microphone, although the subsequent speaker made it clear that the lady was not otherwise to be seen in the Bundestag. Cannabis as an election campaign aid for opponents who are otherwise not interested in it. An old game. This show was more for them than for cannabis.

So they gave the usual performance of refuting and outright lying arguments, painted doomsday scenarios and, of course, children must be protected! We waited in vain for valid evidence of the concrete threat to internal security, the topic of the requested question time, but instead there were plenty of outrageous accusations against the coalition. Election campaigning on the backs of those affected. The CDU/CSU’s hatred of cannabis seems pathological, they actively refuse to recognise and debate the issue on a factual level and instead go full culture war. You have to ask yourself why the CDU/CSU wants to protect the already firmly established illegal market at all costs when it pretends that this did not exist before the KCanG in order to justify the ban, which has failed at all levels. An unworthy spectacle of a retreat battle pretending to be an offense.

Those involved in the KCanG, on the other hand, presented their valid arguments in a consistently objective and calm manner, substantiating them and showing that they had taken the right step overall. Clear signals came from the SPD that the law would not be sacrificed in a future coalition and that, on the contrary, it would continue to move in the right direction with Pillar 2 and dispensaries. In his energetic closing speech, Dirk Heidenblut from the SPD clarified all the claims and also gave a clear indication that the KCanG should be retained until it has been properly evaluated, as is usual with new laws.

For cannabis users in Germany, this parliamentary current hour was associated with the realization that the withdrawal of the KCanG will not be as easy for the Union as they pretend.

But also that we need to keep up the pressure on politicians for sure!

OW

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