Germany’s highly anticipated ‘Pillar 2’, which would seek to implement a Switzerland-style adult-use cannabis pilot project model, is now being worked on by the German government.
In news that will come as a relief to businesses, which were largely excluded from taking part in the nascent adult-use market with last month’s implementation of Pillar 1, the rollout of the next phase could be much simpler than previously anticipated.
This is for two key reasons. Firstly, Pillar 2 is now expected to be regulated under the current CanG law, meaning a separate law will not need to be passed to push it through.
Secondly, since Pillar 2 was first proposed, Switzerland’s own pilot project has expanded and matured significantly, providing Germany with a reliable and effective model to work from.
Finn Age Hänsel, Managing Director of European cannabis operator Sanity Group, which has a major foothold in both the German cannabis market and Switzerland’s pilot projects via the recently launched Grashaus project, told Business of Cannabis: “We are very happy that Germany is now moving ahead and already have a good relationship with several interested German municipalities.
“The way the government is now going is the best case from our end, because it will ensure that pilot projects will not lose too much time through an additional political process.”
What happened?
After presenting its plans for a full commercial adult-use cannabis market to the European Commission in October of 2022, the German government was forced to reevaluate its plans amid concerns it would breach international laws.
In May of the following year, a draft bill was leaked, laying out plans to implement reform in two parts.
The first pillar regulated the decriminalisation of possession, consumption, home cultivation and cannabis associations, while removing cannabis from the list of narcotic substances. This was implemented on April 01, with cultivation associations due to be launched in July this year.
Until now, little information was known about Pillar 2, which will see individual federal states launch five-year adult-use pilot projects for scientific research purposes.
Draft ordinance, first seen by Tagesspiegel Background, has now laid out plans for the Federal Ministry of Agriculture (BMEL) to oversee the regulation of Pillar 2.
According to the so-called ‘Consumer Cannabis Science Responsibility Ordinance’ (KCanWV), part of the already passed CanG bill ‘regulated for the possibility of using cannabis for scientific purposes without a medical connection’.
This means that the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM), which has so far rejected all applications for pilot projects, would no longer be responsible for approving applications.
The BMEL also reports to the Green’s pro-legalisation minister, Cem Özdemir.
Crucially, however, provisions for Pillar 2 in the existing CanG act make it possible that no further legislative proposal will be necessary, significantly reducing the time to implementation and removing the myriad of barriers this presents.
In a letter sent to associations on Friday, seen by Tagesspiegel Background, the BMEL has called for written comments on its proposals to be submitted by May 10.
The Swiss model
As Business of Cannabis has previously reported, Switzerland has now approved seven pilot trials, bringing the total potential sample size of all trials to over 17,000, with around 15,000 of those expected to have legal access to adult-use cannabis once all the trials are fully operational.
With Germany’s ‘Pillar 2’ expected to be largely modelled around the Swiss framework, an increasing number of German businesses are looking to Switzerland for insight on how they can hit the ground running once it’s launched.
Swiss cannabis software provider Cannavigia, whose proprietary ‘Cannabis Dispensary System’ is used across the country’s various projects, is poised to begin working with German companies.
Cannavigia’s Co-Founder and CEO Luc Richner said: “It is great to see that there was foresight by the legislator to lay the groundwork for the next phase already within this version of the CanG. We are looking forward to sharing with our German friends some of the learnings made to date in the Swiss pilot projects.”
This was echoed by Mr Hänsel, who said: “Through our relationship with Cannavigia and our own scientific pilot project in Switzerland, we see ourselves perfectly prepared to support German municipalities with their regional pilot projects.”
Business of Cannabis also understands that a dialogue between the German and Swiss governments regarding the project is already underway.
