Tuesday, 20 October
Berlin’s cannabis crackdown: Police document future penalties
Berlin is one of the country’s frontrunners when it comes to weed violations. Since April 1 of this year, when cannabis consumption was partially legalised, the Berlin police have recorded 41 administrative offenses for smoking cannabis in so-called “consumption ban zones”.
Police have been rigorously enforcing the new law, despite a number of procedural uncertainties almost seven months after its introduction. Questions remain about which agency is responsible for processing reports of administrative offenses, and authorities have yet to issue a catalogue of fines.
Smoking weed is not legal near schools, daycare facilities, sports centres and playgrounds, and anyone caught smoking weed in sight of these areas won’t be let off lightly. The statute of limitations is up to three years and violations can be punished with fines of up to 30,000 euros, according to the federal law.
The roll-out of the new law has met some major road blocks. Cannabis clubs (private, members-only spaces for buying weed) are finding it difficult to establish cultivation areas in Berlin because of the distance requirement from schools, residential buildings and youth facilities, with many clubs moving to Brandenburg.
Vasili Franco, spokesperson for drug policy with the Berlin Greens, voiced frustration via rbb, criticising the Senate for delayed implementation of federal law. He expressed support for the establishment of a centralised licensing office at the State Office for Health and Social Affairs, emphasising the importance of the regulation’s timely rollout. ‘In the end, every gram monitored and regulated by a cultivation association is one gram less on the black market,’ Franco noted.
