Text by Dutch Foundation VOC

During the weekend of the well-attended Mary Jane cannabis fair in Berlin, Encod held a general assembly in the basement of the Hanf Museum (Hemp Museum) in the German capital. The VOC, the Dutch Union for the Abolition of cannabis prohibition, is a member of Encod, and its chairman Derrick Bergman and secretary Mauro Picavet attended the general assembly.

The European Coalition for Just and Effective Drug Policies has existed since 1994. And without Encod, the VOC would probably never have existed. Joep Oomen, Encod’s co-founder and driving force for many years, is one of the founders of the VOC. He brought a great deal of knowledge, contacts, and experience and played a key role in the VOC until his sudden death in 2016. Joep’s death was a major blow to both organizations; he is still missed.

Encod was hit by an even more difficult-to-grasp tragedy at the beginning of this year. After Joep Oomen died, the secretariat moved from his hometown of Antwerp, Belgium to Vienna. The Austrian Gaby and her German husband Erec ran the secretariat. Erec had been struggling with mental health problems and called the police on January 5, 2024, because he was not doing well. The police came to his house, attacked Erec with pepper spray, and shot him four times. “He wanted help and was murdered,”; Gaby wrote on Facebook a few days later.

For many Encod members, the general assembly in Berlin was the first time they had seen Gaby since the violent death of her husband. She showed herself to be strong and combative and she has no intention of stopping her work for Encod and improving drug policy. The General Assembly was a special one, with members from Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Malta, Spain, Italy, France, and the Netherlands attending. The decriminalization of cannabis in Germany clearly gives energy and inspiration to all European countries.

The fact that the German government has opted for the cannabis social club model, which Encod has been promoting for decades, is a boost. But the German version differs from the Encod version in crucial points. In particular, the ban on consuming cannabis in the club goes against the basic concept of the cannabis social club. Enjoying cannabis together in a safe and social environment is essential. The rules that German clubs must adhere to are unnecessarily strict and restrictive. In the rest of Europe, the climate for cannabis consumers is significantly worse than in Germany.

A Czech Encod member was quite pessimistic about the legalization law that has been in the making in the Czech Republic for years. He expects a Luxembourg scenario: no commercial cultivation or shops, but only home cultivation and maybe non-commercial cannabis clubs.

Encod chairman and Parisian Farid Ghehiouèche was even more pessimistic about French drug policy. For the time being, it is all about repression in France. He told the attendees that a friend had received a one-year prison sentence a few days earlier for just eight cannabis plants. The man lives with his elderly mother and a disabled brother, whom he now has to leave to their fate.

VOC secretary Mauro Picavet gave an update on the Dutch cannabis experiment, the new Dutch government, and the VOC’s activities and campaigns, such as veiligthuiskweken.nl, De Gouden Gieter, and cannabisenverkeer.nl.

Malta, the first EU country to legalize cannabis, now has seven cannabis social clubs, three of which supply their members. Consumption in the club is prohibited; perhaps the German government copied this nonsensical rule from Malta. Andrew Bonello of ReLeaf Malta said that a lot of people also grow at home. His organization advocates for increasing the amount of cannabis you can have on the street from seven to thirty grams as well as the amount you can have at home. Now that is a maximum of fifty grams, which means that every home grower runs the risk of being prosecuted. The same maximum applies in Germany, and therefore the same risk for home growers. ReLeaf Malta also wants to abolish the ban on sharing cannabis with friends.

It was good to see that Encod is still vibrant after thirty years. In the power struggle between government on the one hand and commerce on the other, an independent organization of consumers and activists with knowledge and experience is sorely needed. If you want to know more about Encod or become a member, check out this page.

[this article was first published in Dutch, as part of the “VOC Logboek” in HighLife Magazine 4, 2024]

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