New German Government Coalition Will Include Greens Who Want to Legalize Marijuana

The Social Democrats and their Green allies may have a 21 seat margin in the new German parliament. (The Social Democrats also control the upper house.) Although the new Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, is a Clinton/Blair clone who is trying to take his party to the center, the party is still controlled by the moderate left. The Greens are a fairly radical "environmentalist" party, and an awareness of hemp is certainly an important part of the environmental movement in Germany. Although the Greens’ position on marijuana prohibition is well-known, this was not in most reports. It will be interesting to see if it is widely reported.

Normally, I would expect that we would be sold-out, just as we were by the Socialists in France, who went back on their promise to decriminalize. However, this may not be so easy to do with the German Greens for the odd reason that marijuana legalization may be the least controversial of their positions. For example, they want to phase out NATO, a move which Germany’s neighbors will strongly oppose.

The most likely outcome may be that the German federal government will just leave it up the states, which the outgoing Kohl government would not do. The states in the Northwest of Germany would be likely to move toward some sort of de facto legalization. This would avoid having to deal with any treaty obligations.

The other change would be ending German pressure on its neighbors, most notably Holland, but also Denmark. A change in German policy would also make it easier for French Socialist Prime Minister Jospin to ignore rabidly prohibitionist President Jacques Chirac and do the right thing.

Obviously, DEAland will try to pressure Germany to continue marijuana prohibition, but Clinton was so open in his support for the defeated Kohl that Schroeder owes Clinton nothing. The fact is that Germany is just too big to pressure. If the German government really wants to end marijuana prohibition, they can.

How odd it is that the world looks to Germany for freedom at the end of the 20^th century. However, Beethoven would not be surprised.