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Chancellor Olaf Scholz's cabinet will this week discuss a bill that would allow limited consumption of hashish and marijuana. The plans have been widely criticized as impossible to police.
Hundreds of people joined the annual cannabis legalization protest in the German capital, Berlin, on Saturday, days before the cabinet is due to discuss a bill that would overturn a ban on the drug.
Police said 500-600 people took part in the Hanfparade (Hemp Parade). However, the numbers were about a third of last year's 1,500 participants.
The parade has been held every year since 1997. The aim is to call on the government to liberalize laws on soft drugs such as marijuana and hashish, which are derived from the cannabis plant.
Parade organizers are also advocating for easier access to medical cannabis and the widespread use of hemp, which is the same plant species as cannabis.
Germany has decided to ease drug laws
The government is planning to legalize cannabis, potentially allowing adults to possess up to 25 grams of cannabis and grow up to three plants for personal use.
Under a proposed law, the drug could be grown and sold by so-called cannabis clubs, subject to strict rules, including neutral packaging and a maximum of 50 grams per customer per month.
The cabinet will discuss the bill next week, Health Minister Karl Lauterbach was quoted as saying by the DPA news agency.
Cannabis advocates within the coalition government hope to legalize the drug this year.
The Ministry of Health believes that the measure could save the country's police, legal system and prisons more than 1 billion euros in costs per year.
However, the proposed law faces many obstacles, including from the German Association of Judges (DRB), which believes it will be difficult to uphold.
"This very small-scale law would require a high level of control, which would lead to many new disputes and many court proceedings," DRB federal director Sven Rebehn told DPA on Saturday. The DRB says the proposed law will also have little impact on the black market for drugs.
German police criticize the law
Earlier this month, the vice president of the German police union (GdP) said the new law would place a huge burden on the police.
Federal PBB Vice President Alexander Poitz told the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND) network that the bill lacked precision and foresight.
The planned law would allow people to smoke marijuana in public, but not within 200 meters of schools, day care centers, playgrounds or sports fields.
The Free Democratic Party (FDP), the smallest in Chancellor Olaf Scholz's coalition, has also criticized the plans.
"In its current form, it would create a veritable bureaucratic monster that can hardly be controlled. The FDP parliamentary group firmly rejects an upper limit for possession. After all, no one controls how many bottles of wine someone keeps in basement," she said.
Instead, she called for "proportionate and precise regulations that provide real protection for young people and at the same time do not lead to an additional burden on the police and the judiciary".
The draft is likely to change as the lower house of the German parliament, or Bundestag, debates it./DW
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