Marijuana Business Daily 30 October 2020
Our additional comment: New Zealand setting a worldwide trend 🙂
The German federal parliament rejected a bill to legalize a “strictly controlled” adult-use cannabis market, dealing a major setback to recreational marijuana reform efforts in that country.
The rejection came despite the fact that a majority of the members of the Bundestang belong to a political party that favors some type of reform.
Legalization efforts during this legislative period are extremely unlikely because:
- German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right, Christian-democratic political alliance – the Union – opposes any liberalization.
- The Social Democratic Party (SPD) is in favor of some reform – at least allowing experimental pilot programs – but cannabis reform has taken a back seat among Social Democrats who prefer to vote in tandem with their government coalition partner, the Union.
- Without favorable votes from at least some members of the government coalition parties – which have a majority in parliament – no legalization scenario is possible.
- Although most opposition parties are in favor of some type of legalization, they remain in the opposition and can’t agree on how that should be accomplished.
The rejected bill was tabled by the Green Party and had the support of only The Left party. The votes of the two parties combined fell short.
READ MORE: https://mjbizdaily.com/germany-rejects-recreational-marijuana-legalization-bill/
