The leaders of Germany’s coalition government say they have reached a final agreement on a bill to legalize marijuana, resolving outstanding disagreements that had delayed action and setting the stage for a vote in the final week of February and enactment in April.
In a joint statement, leaders of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), Free Democratic Party (FDP) and Greens said the proposed regulations “are a real milestone for a modern drug policy that strengthens prevention and improves health, child and youth protection.”
The Netherlands has those laws because they are restricted by the EU. Germany isn’t properly legalising weed either, instead it’s a decriminalisation where the only avenues to procure cannabis are through non-commercial agriculture. Proper change needs to come from the European level.
That’s not entirely true. The Dutch toleration policy started in the 70’s so before the Schengen Agreement. The reason to implement a mandate instead of codifying it into law and why it is a half assed mandate was to placate the right wing Christian parties.
Yes nowadays the EU plays a role into why the Dutch haven’t updated their laws, but it’s mostly internal pressure from the right for why they haven’t done anything substantial in the last three decades. In those decades the center right libs were always part of the government and they have been blocking any proposal to legalize weed. Only now they have opened up to the idea of government produced weed, since their tough on crime policies and war on drugs haven’t amounted to anything.