This April Fool's Day, the Germans have made a big mistake.
On April 1, local time, the "Cannabis Act", which has been debated for many years, officially came into effect.
According to the bill, adults over the age of 18 can carry 25 grams of marijuana per person for personal consumption, and can store up to 50 grams of marijuana at home and grow 3 plants.
● German people queuing up to buy marijuana
That night, to celebrate the successful release of the bill, at least more than 1,500 addicts gathered at Berlin's Brandenburg Platz and smoked marijuana en masse at zero o'clock.
● Marijuana addicts gathered at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate to celebrate the legalization of marijuana
Due to the large number of smokers, the smell of marijuana fills the air for miles.
With flags raised in celebration and many sober citizens worried, Alexander Potts of the police union believes that with the demand for marijuana outstripping the legal supply, the future of law enforcement will only be tougher.
So the question is, why are the Germans, who have always been known for being reliable, so unreliable this time?
In fact, strictly speaking, it is not accurate to attribute marijuana to drugs entirely.
As a genus of mulberry plants, there are many different species of cannabis under the genus Cannabis, but not all of them have hallucinogenic components.
Because the cannabis species that produce hallucinogenic components require a long period of sunlight to use the energy of light to produce the main hallucinogen, tetrahydrocannabinol.
● Marijuana at the Cannabis Museum in Berlin, Germany
Most of China does not have such conditions, so China's native cannabis, which contains very little hallucinogens, can only be used to weave cloth or make paper.
To this day, the evolutionary history of cannabis is not clear, but the prevailing view in the scientific community is that the plant originated in the region bordering India and Nepal.
The hallucinogenic effects characteristic of cannabis are often used as a catalyst for religion.
As early as 4,000 years ago, dervishes in India used cannabis as an anesthetic to create the effect of communicating with the gods, and harvested a large number of believers.
In Hindu legend, cannabis is a sacred relic, as a "guide to heaven", and is worshipped as one of the five sacred herbs.
Before the formation of an independent medical system, early medicine and witchcraft were intertwined.
In ancient India, patients suffering from malaria and rheumatism were asked to take cannabis-made remedies to relieve their suffering, farmers used marijuana to relieve irritability and fatigue during the harvest season, soldiers took it to strengthen their courage before war, and some even used it to treat menstrual cramps and cataracts.
One herb cures all diseases, and everything can be numb.
Compared to the long history of Asian cannabis, European cannabis is less old, less than 200 years ago since its introduction.
Around 1836 to 1840, the French physician Moreau de Tours traveled to India. Witnessing the excitement of the locals smoking marijuana, Moreau immediately realized that it was a miraculous plant with medicinal value and introduced it to France.
● Indian monks smoking marijuana
After some research, he discovered the benefits of marijuana and wrote the medical treatise "Marijuana and Psychosis".
In this book, Moreau describes in detail the pleasure he felt after inhaling marijuana, which was the envy of many French people. Among them, the most influential is the literary world.
The quest for inspiration is never-ending for writers. After smoking marijuana, they find themselves in a world of drifting and exhilarating.
So, catalyzed by passion, these people set up a "Indian Cannabis Club" in Paris, attracting many high-end members to join, including many literary bigwigs such as Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, and Baudelaire.
At the same time, because some religions in Europe banned alcohol, some religious believers began to use marijuana instead of drinking, which intensified the spread of marijuana in Europe.
In particular, in 1890, Queen Victoria, known as the "grandmother of Europe", on the advice of a doctor, used marijuana to relieve chronic pain that had plagued her for many years.
Since then, marijuana has become all the rage in Europe and spread to North America with smugglers.
The United Nations World Drug Report has pointed out that 183 million people in the world smoke marijuana, and at least 75% of them are in North America.
Of the 200,000 people who die from drugs, more than 190,000 addicts start by using marijuana.
But under the manipulation of politicians, marijuana has now been put on the veneer of legality in 23 states in the United States.
Former U.S. President Barack Obama once admitted in his autobiography that he smoked marijuana when he was young, and he even admitted in public: "In terms of the impact on individual consumers, I think marijuana is less dangerous than alcohol." ”
● Former U.S. President Barack Obama was also one of the addicts
In addition, celebrities such as Clinton, Bush, Schwarzenegger, and Cameron have not shied away from their experience of smoking marijuana.
It's not that they're too honest, but because in the United States, with a population of 320 million, there are conservative estimates of more than 30 million marijuana users.
In the eyes of politicians, if you can exchange your own experience for the empathy of these people, and then get their votes, it is enough to form a powerful political card.
What's more, when marijuana is legalized, it can provide hundreds of thousands of jobs and bring more than $3 billion in tax revenue to the government.
The huge potential benefits of cannabis have led many countries to follow suit.
In addition to the 23 states of the United States, Canada, Honduras, Colombia, the Netherlands, Thailand, Mexico, South Africa and other countries and regions are also vying to legalize recreational marijuana.
One of the most positive is Canada.
In 2000, a Canadian politician named Mark Emery created the Marijuana Party in order to canvass votes. That's right, literally, a party formed in order to smoke marijuana openly.
What's even more outrageous is that the Marijuana Party, as a legal political party in Canada, has absorbed a bunch of addicts who swallow the clouds, and Mark Emery himself is known as Canada's "Prince of Marijuana".
● Mark Emery
If one day, the "Prince of Marijuana" is elected as the leader of the ruling party, it is quite magical to think about.
Fueled by the "Prince of Cannabis", Canada finally legalized marijuana in 2018 after a series of pilot promotions.
Under the principle of putting interests first, the unhealthy trend of legalizing marijuana has also quietly blown into Asia.
In countries such as Myanmar and Cambodia, where cannabis is banned by law, the local government has turned a blind eye to economic and political problems.
Thailand, whose pillar industry is tourism, has seen a serious decline in the number of inbound tourists due to the epidemic in the previous two years. For this, the Thai government had to reach out to those who love cannabis and the curious.
● Thai workers are growing cannabis
In June 2022, Thailand removed cannabis from the list of drugs, becoming the first country in Asia to legalize marijuana.
However, reviving the economy with the help of cannabis is tantamount to drinking to quench your thirst.
Medical studies have shown that smoking marijuana not only forms carcinogens 50%~70% higher than tobacco and causes irreversible damage to the brain, but also because of its strong hallucinogenic properties, it is more likely to trigger drug driving, brawls and other public security problems.
Less than a week after the release of the cannabis legalization policy, Thailand has felt how hard the bitter fruit is to swallow.
First, the number of smokers skyrocketed, from only 1.89 million eaters before liberalization, to 11 million after liberalization, and the proportion of teenagers smoking marijuana increased tenfold.
● Thais celebrate the legalization of marijuana
This was followed by a number of cases of being admitted to the hospital for overdose of marijuana, and individual patients died of cardiac arrest.
It is difficult to say whether the economy has been revitalized, but the Thai government's intestines are repentant.
In September 2023, Prime Minister Saita urgently announced that he would "correct" the cannabis policy within 6 months to curb the number of pharmacies that sell cannabis freely.
On February 13, 2024, the Thai Ministry of Health announced that it would suspend the process of "legalizing marijuana" and hoped to ban the recreational use of marijuana by the end of 2024.
● Cannabis shops can be found everywhere on the streets of Thailand
This is not the case in Thailand, and the countries that have taken the lead in legalizing marijuana are even more chaotic.
As the world's most drug-prone country, the United States consumed nearly 16,000 tons of drugs, including marijuana, in 2021 alone, with a transaction value of $50 billion, more than Americans spend on chocolate and craft beer in a year.
Over the past 40 years, the number of drug overdose deaths in the United States has increased by about 9 percent per year, doubling in an average of eight years or so. Even in 2020, when the epidemic was raging, the number of deaths due to drug abuse in the United States reached 93,000, a record high.
What's even more shocking is that the legalization of marijuana has made marijuana cheaper and cheaper, and some companies have even developed marijuana snacks for minors.
In October 2022, the Harrison Police Department in Arkansas, USA, seized nearly $1 million in drugs, including 176 pounds of marijuana gummies, and in Guadalupe County, Texas, Sheriff John Flores said helplessly: "It's not uncommon to see people selling marijuana snacks to minors on the street, and this phenomenon is more common than before." ”
With the blessing of the Internet economy, cannabis snacks can even spread to the other side of the ocean.
The Sun in the United States has launched an investigation into an e-commerce platform in the United Kingdom, and a gummy containing 200 mg of marijuana costs £18 and can be delivered to your door within 24 hours for a £5 courier fee.
The only requirement is that the customer must pay in Bitcoin.
If they can't get their hands on Bitcoin, kids can also go to Amazon.com and buy 30 packets of individual gummies from the United States, Canada and other places for £20.
Long-term consumption of marijuana food is irreversible to the brain damage of minors.
According to data, nearly 40 percent of high school students in the United States have experienced marijuana use, and these people have common learning disabilities, memory and concentration loss, and intermittent mental illness.
● Cannabis snacks produced in the United States
Therefore, on August 1, 2023, the official website of the American "Washington Examiner" published an article calling on the United States to stop the process of legalizing marijuana, because "this will inevitably lead to the collapse of the moral structure and social order in the United States." ”
Ironically, these non-mainstream voices have been met with resistance from the general public, with data showing that 80% of Americans support the legalization of marijuana.
Corey Rothschild, vice president of a cannabis business in the United States, even openly declared: "We don't need to convince people to believe in marijuana, what we need is to convince them to buy it legally." ”
Given the disadvantages of legalizing marijuana, why can the ruling party in Germany choose to ignore it and pass the Cannabis Act with an overwhelming vote?
In the name of it, it is to crack down on black market transactions and protect minors.
But in fact, the answer is only two words, interests.
To be precise, economic interests and political considerations were the two main factors in the German government's final decision to legalize marijuana.
Let's talk about the economy first, in November 2021, the University of Düsseldorf in Germany released the results of a study. The results show that 4 million to 5 million people in Germany use marijuana out of a population of more than 80 million.
● On April 20, 2023, people held a rally in Berlin, Germany, to demand the legalization of marijuana
Especially since the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Germany's economic losses have exceeded 240 billion euros, becoming the largest loss among the countries aiding Ukraine.
If marijuana is legalized, it will generate up to 4.7 billion euros in tax revenue and 27,000 jobs, which could provide a temporary blood transfusion into the scarred German economy.
However, political interests are the invisible driving force behind the legalization of marijuana compared to the economy.
This has to dig into the history of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's ascension.
In the 2021 German chancellor election, the leader of the SPD, Scholz, united with the Greens and the FDP to form a governing coalition, and finally defeated his rival Angela Merkel with 52% of the votes and was successfully elected as the German chancellor.
There are big differences in the political philosophies of the three parties, and in order to govern smoothly, Scholz has had to compromise on some issues, including the issue of legalizing marijuana.
After taking office, Scholz took the initiative to cooperate with the Greens and the FDP to promote the legalization of marijuana, and included the terms of cannabis legalization into the coalition agreement. What's more, Synbiotic, Germany's largest drug giant, is the provider of the Green Party's funds.
Therefore, the legalization of marijuana can be counted as the first return of Synbiotic.
However, in the past two years, the coalition government led by Scholz has been ineffective in boosting the economy, solving people's livelihood problems, and controlling immigration.
With more than 4 million marijuana users, it is tantamount to a small walking vault, and the problem of open source is solved.
● Hemp farm in Leuna, Germany
During the previous Chancellor Angela Merkel's administration, there was zero tolerance for drugs, including marijuana.
The German police deal with 358,000 drug-related cases every year, consume 2 billion euros in police funds, and cause about 100 police casualties.
Scholz believes that if marijuana is legal, 80% of drug crimes can be avoided, which will not only save police resources, but also significantly reduce fiscal spending.
With a combination of punches, the government has achieved its goal of increasing revenue and reducing expenditure; drug-making companies have received high returns; addicts can legally take drugs; and by the way, Germany has been able to gain a reputation as a liberal democracy in Europe.
So it's not hard to understand why, before the official release of the Cannabis Act, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said: "Although drugs can degrade people, our government has bravely made this difficult decision." ”
• German Chancellor Olaf Scholz
It's hard to believe that everything from the iron-blooded Chancellor Bismarck to the "Iron Lady" Angela Merkel, and even war maniacs like Hitler, who are strictly guarding against drugs, including marijuana, have been so easily broken by the current German ruling party.
All cause and effect seem to have early signs.
Because as early as more than 200 years ago, Marx, a native German thinker, made an accurate prediction about this.
"Capital comes into the world dripping with blood and filth from head to toe in every pore. "Text/Canghai Mingyuesheng