A former slaughterhouse in Dresden, Germany, is now home to row behind rows of cannabis plants.
They were planted in November, with the first harvest in January, which will mark the first large-scale legal harvest of cannabis on German soil.
The leaves will be turned into cannabis flour and used in legal medical marijuana products.
The company behind the plantation is called Demecan.
The Berlin-based company was one of three to win bids from the German cannabis agency to produce cannabis in Germany. The other two companies continue to work on their production.
“It’s actually a very new thing. It’s a unique facility we have here in Germany. It’s one of the only German facilities for growing medicinal cannabis,” said Constantin von der Groeben, CEO of Demecan.
“And what we see here is our first batch of medicinal cannabis that we’re currently growing. Next year, this facility will produce a ton of dry cannabis flour. So, a thousand pounds.”
Medicinal cannabis products were legalized by the federal government in Germany in 2016.
But the new government, led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who took over in December 2021, wants to go one step further and legalize the sale of cannabis for recreational use to adults in specialty and licensed stores.
It would be similar to current legislation in Canada and some US states.
In Berlin, several cannabis-focused start-ups have been founded in recent years.
One is the Sanity Group, which specializes in medicinal cannabis products as well as self-care products containing cannabis CBD oil, which is extracted from the cannabis plant.
Fabian Friede, co-founder of Sanity Group, celebrates the move towards legalization.
“So I think in general, at the macro level, the direction is right. I think moving toward recreational cannabis use is great. Plus, easing the prescription of medical cannabis is great,” he says.
“But as you said, it’s about details. And so I think we’re very curious, and the waiting time is the hardest part because we’d like to start preparing and of course we do. “We’re going in every direction, because we don’t know exactly which direction it’s going.”
The new German coalition
The new German government is made up of three coalition parties: the Social Democratic Party, the Green Party and the Free Democratic Party.
Before the parties began ruling together, they agreed on a more than 170-page coalition agreement outlining the step towards legalizing cannabis for recreational use.
The documents specify that authorized stores will be able to sell cannabis to adults, but other than that there are not many details.
There is no firm timetable either, but as the government has a four-year term, it is implied that this is the longest possible time period.
“There will be more start-ups. There will be more companies. There will be a whole industry, a sector around it. From regulation, from delivery to dispensaries, to logistics,” said Finn Hänsel, co-founder of the pharmaceutical company. Sanity Group company.
“So I think it will really be a boom, it will create a lot more jobs, it will generate a lot more tax revenue for the government. So in fact I think that while it will obviously be competition for us, I think it’s good. “To be honest, there is nothing better than healthy competition.”
Concern for criminal gangs
There has been some criticism of the plan, specifically from parts of the Christian Democratic Party CDU that ruled Germany for 16 years under Angela Merkel.
There is concern that younger people will have easier access to cannabis from older friends and family, and there are people who say it will not reduce crime, but that criminal gangs will move to other drugs or sell cannabis cheaper than in stores.
Friede says concerns will have to be addressed in the final legislation.
“Yes, I understand that there are risks. I mean, if we look at the use of cannabis for minors and all, then of course we have to address it in detail,” he said.
“We need to address these risks. But I think doing nothing is not a solution either. Because people use cannabis, they are only using it in a lower quality, coming from a black market, supporting organized crime. How is this better than the alternative? “
The argument that organized crime will have less of a market and, in turn, the state will have more of a revenue stream was often raised in debates about cannabis legalization in Germany.
But one of the country’s top two police unions is skeptical.
“The police believe that we are adding another drug to drugs that are already legal, such as nicotine and alcohol, and that we could get another ‘popular drug’ that is widely used in the form of cannabis,” he said. Jörg Radek. , Vice President of the German Police Union GdP
“And as a police officer I have my doubts about that because it will change society. But also, for us in the police force, we will certainly have more work to do.”
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