A bill to legalize marijuana in Germany will be implemented on schedule in April, with lawmakers representing individual states in the Bundesrat declining to refer the legislation to a mediation committee that would have meant setting back the timeline by six months.
While the Bundestag passed the cannabis legalization measure last month, there were concerns among advocates that the Bundesrat, a body also known as the Federal Council, would vote to recommend the committee referral during a meeting on Friday.
But that did not happen, meaning that the law, which will make possession and home cultivation legal and authorize social clubs that can distribute marijuana to members, will go into effect on April 1.
To prevent the implementation delay, Health Minister Karl Lauterbach, who has for months been the government’s lead on the cannabis plan, put forward a “protocol declaration” to the Federal Council ahead of the vote, aiming to address members’ outstanding concerns about issues such as youth prevention, reduced cultivation canopy sizes and zoning requirements for social clubs that could eventually distribute marijuana to adults.
While the protocol declaration that Lauterbach put forward is not legally binding, the strategy ultimately worked, as the body evidently accepted the arrangement and
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