Germany Hosts Five Other European Nations At Joint Marijuana Meeting To Discuss Legalization Experiences

German officials are convening a multi-national conference where leaders will share their experiences with legalizing and regulating marijuana, with a focus on public health and mitigating the illicit market. At the same time, however, certain parties within Germany are pushing to overturn the country’s recently enacted cannabis legalization law.

Representatives from Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Switzerland were invited by German Commissioner for Addiction and Drug Issues Burkhard Blienert to the meeting in Berlin on Monday and Tuesday to “exchange experiences in regulating cannabis for non-medical purposes.”

This is the third year in a row that the European nations have held a marijuana-centered “international ministerial.” And it comes as Germany continues to implement its own legalization law that took effect in April, with plans to eventually expand to allow a commercial market pilot program.

The focus of the meetings this week “is on the first experiences with the regulation of cannabis for non-medical purposes as well as the topics of prevention and evidence,” a press release from the ministry says, according to a translation.

“Despite decades of prohibition and criminal prosecution, cannabis was and is one of the most commonly consumed psychoactive substances in Europe and worldwide,” Blienert said. “Its availability, use and—due to the ever-increasing THC content—its danger to health have steadily increased over the last decade. It was clear that something had to happen.”

Wir haben mit dem #KCanG auch europaweit einen völlig neuen Weg eingeschlagen. Jetzt ist wichtig, zu evaluieren und den Austausch mit gleichgesinnten Staaten zu festigen. Ich habe deshalb ministerielle VertreterInnen aus CHE, CZE, MLT, NLD, LUX eingeladen: https://t.co/HK6OQxapeQpic.twitter.com/j3WTDRXc85

— Sucht- und Drogenbeauftragter der Bundesregierung (@BdB_SD_Blienert) November 18, 2024

“I am sure that through evidence-based prevention, increased education and the decriminalization of home cultivation implemented in Germany with the Consumer Cannabis Act, we will succeed in reducing the health risks associated with the consumption of cannabis for non-medical purposes to a considerable extent,” he said. “We will also significantly reduce the illegal trade.”

“As optimistic as I am, I would like to stress one thing: we are entering new territory. And that is why it is important to evaluate all steps comprehensively and to establish a close exchange of experience with all other European states that have taken or will take comparable steps. That is why I have invited you to Berlin this week.”

As German officials have been working to implement their own cannabis law, however, lawmakers debated the policy on the floor of the Bundestag last week, with conservative parties pledging to overturn the reform if they win a majority following an election that is expected in February amid the collapse of the country’s governing coalition.

Kristine Lütke of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) called the effort by the Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union “absurd and out of touch with reality.”

1/ Heute setzt die CDU/CSU ein einziges Thema auf die Tagesordnung: Cannabis. Während unsere Wirtschaft schrumpft und dringend einen Turnaround braucht, beschäftigt man sich mit ideologischen Angriffen auf Konsumenten. Absurd und an der Realität vorbei.

— Kristine Lütke MdB (@kristine_lutke) November 15, 2024

Green MP Kirsten Kappert-Gonther said that the conservative faction “has an irritatingly obsessive relationship to the topic [of] Cannabis.”

“One thing is clear: Decriminalization was long overdue Legal alternatives to the black market protect consumers and increase safety,” she said. “What is needed now are licensed specialist shops instead of bans!”

Die Union hat ein irritierend obsezessives Verhältnis zum Thema #Cannabis Dabei ist klar:Die Entkriminalisierung war überfällig Legale Alternativen zum Schwarzmarkt schützen Konsumierende u erhöhen die Sicherheit Was es jetzt braucht, sind lizensierte Fachgeschäfte statt Verbote!

— Kirsten Kappert-Gonther (@KirstenKappert) November 15, 2024

Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach, who spearheaded the legalization push in Germany, said the country “fundamentally changed our drug policy on cannabis, and the law “deserves a chance” to be implemented.

„Wir haben unsere Drogenpolitik bei #Cannabis grundsätzlich geändert: Weg von Verboten, hin zu #Aufklärung und mehr Sicherheit. Dieses Gesetz hat eine Chance verdient“, sagte @Karl_Lauterbach im #Bundestag bei der Aktuellen Stunde zum Cannabis-Gesetz. pic.twitter.com/3x09OJldI5

— Bundesgesundheitsministerium (@BMG_Bund) November 15, 2024

Meanwhile, the countries that are participating in the ministerial have varying cannabis policies. Malta, for example, became the first European country to enact cannabis legalization in 2021. Luxembourg followed suit, with the reform officially taking effect last year.

Government officials from several countries, including the U.S., also met in Germany last November to discuss international marijuana policy issues as the host nation works to enact legalization.

A group of German lawmakers, as well as Blienert, separately visited the U.S. and toured California cannabis businesses in 2022 to inform their country’s approach to legalization.

The visit came after top officials from Germany, Luxembourg, Malta and the Netherlands held their first-of-its-kind meeting to discuss plans and challenges associated with recreational marijuana legalization in 2022.

A novel international survey released in 2022 found majority support for legalization in several key European countries, including Germany.

Meanwhile, the United Nations (UN) drug control body recently reiterated that it considers legalizing marijuana for non-medical or scientific purposes a violation of international treaties, though it also said it appreciates that Germany’s government scaled back its cannabis plan ahead of the vote.

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California Should Cap THC Levels In Marijuana And Test A Government-Run Cannabis Monopoly, State-Commissioned Report Says

A new report released on Wednesday by a panel of experts convened by California’s Department of Public Health (CDPH) makes a number of major policy recommendations that would radically alter the landscape of the state’s marijuana market, for example by limiting the THC potency of cannabis flower and concentrates, requiring products be sold in plain packaging and setting up a government-run cannabis monopoly along the lines of how stores work in Quebec, Canada.

The new recommendations come in a report from the High Potency Cannabis Think Tank, which consists of scientists and public health experts tapped by CDPH “to provide analysis of the problem of increasing potency of cannabis and cannabis products and to formulate regulations to address it.”

Other recommendations include taxing marijuana based on THC potency and more strictly limiting advertising that might appeal to children.

Members of the committee represent institutions such as RTI International; the University of California in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Irvine; the University of Southern California; the University of Washington; Stanford University; the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; the Public Health Institute; and Kaiser Permanente’s research division.

The report highlights 10 top suggestions in terms of their likely policy impact, including around product potency, advertising, taxation, packaging and labeling, public education and more. It says the recommendations’ goals are intended to reduce the incidence of cannabis use disorder and negative mental health consequences associated with cannabis use, minimize use and frequent use by people under 21 and reduce use by drivers and during pregnancy.

“In developing the recommendations, we sought policies that would not contribute to stigma related to cannabis use, nor recreate past inequitable patterns of penalization, focusing primarily on addressing the supply side, pricing, and educating consumers,” the report says.

In terms of recommended caps on high-potency products, the panel advised a 60 percent THC limit on cannabis concentrates, a 25 percent THC limit on marijuana flower and a limit of 10 milligrams of THC “per physical piece or liquid beverage container” in ingestible products, excluding tinctures.

Further, the panel said that higher-THC products—flower above 20 percent, inhaled products above 35 percent and edibles over 10 mg per package, if permitted—should be sold only in plain packaging, with no branding or marketing allowed.

“Ideally,” the report says, “this should extend to all cannabis products.”

California should also ban “the use of added flavors (including fruits, mint, menthol, vanilla, chocolate, spices, and other common food flavors) in all inhaled products, whether natural or synthetic” as well as “prohibit language and images that could lead consumers to believe the product has flavors other than those of cannabis,” the group says.

Another top suggestion from the CDPH-convened panel is that the state should consider “testing, promoting, or facilitating a Quebec-style public monopoly approach to cannabis sales, particularly in jurisdictions that have not yet legalized cannabis sales.”

NEW REPORT: Scientific panel warns that high-potency #cannabis products in CA pose serious health risks & recommends 20 policies to reduce harms, like #THC caps, flavored cannabis bans & plain packaging.

Read Report: https://t.co/BKz7tKUXv0#CannabisPolicy#PublicHealthpic.twitter.com/xQ4XBaWayD

— Getting it Right from the Start (@GetItRightonMJ) October 30, 2024

Currently all cannabis in Quebec must be purchased through the state-owned Société Québécoise du Cannabis (SQDC).

In California, meanwhile, more than half of cities and counties still locally ban the sale of marijuana following voters’ passage of statewide legalization in 2016.

The state’s tax structure for marijuana products should also be updated to structure excise taxes “to be proportional to the milligrams of THC in the taxed product, applicable to all cannabis products.” Currently taxes are calculated based on a product’s sale price.

Many of the recommendations focus on reducing the appeal of higher-potency cannabis products to youth, such as an advised ban on billboard advertising and “any other general public-facing advertising,” which the report says is because “billboard advertising reaches children, and because a high percentage of the market is high potency.”

“This report provides an urgently needed roadmap for implementing policies that do a better job of balancing the benefits of a legal cannabis market with the potential risks to public health,” co-author Rosalie Liccardo Pacula, a professor and chair of the Health Policy and Management Department at the University of Southern California‘s public policy school, said in a statement about the report.

“Our recommendations focus on regulating cannabis, as the voters intended, but doing so in a way that considers the harms from excess use of a legal intoxicant and protects youth,” she said. “Restricting the availability of high-potency products, redesigning taxes so they are based on THC content, and enforcing youth access laws and marketing restrictions are possible and are strategies already being implemented in other legal jurisdictions.”

Researchers also called for at least another $10 million or more in cannabis tax revenue annually to fund public health campaigns “on the risks of high potency cannabis, including mental health risks,” specifically prioritizing “use during pregnancy, drugged driving, and education for youth and seniors.”

The report says the money should also fund research and testing of public messaging campaigns.

And to better keep tabs on the effects of high-potency marijuana products, the team called for “the tracking and regular reporting of negative health outcomes associated with high potency products in California hospitals, hospital emergency departments, and ambulatory care settings.”

Beyond the top 10 policies in terms of expected impact, the report suggests restricting advertising of cannabis products with over 35 percent THC (or 20 percent THC for flower products), requiring retailers to offer lower-dose (e.g. under 10 percent THC) options, establishing more robust age-gating for cannabis websites, prohibiting discounts of higher-potency THC products, mandating specific warning labels be affixed to higher-potency products and generally stepping up enforcement of regulations already intended to curb products’ appeal to children.

High Potency Cannabis Think Tank / CDPH

“As cannabis legalization advances, our report underscores the urgent need for stronger regulatory protections and public education about the dangers of high-potency cannabis,” said co-author Daniele Piomelli, a professor at UC Irvine School of Medicine and director of the Center for the Study of Cannabis. “It’s critical to limit exposure to these products, especially for youth, pregnant individuals, and people with mental health conditions, to reduce the potential for long-term health harms.”

Marijuana has grown increasingly more potent in recent decades, the report notes, and “over the more than six years of California’s legal adult-use commercial market, the trend toward higher potency has continued unabated, mirroring national trends.”

The report says that while its focus is the state’s regulated adult-use marijuana market, “the parallel emergence of a major intoxicating hemp market cannot be ignored.”

“Edible hemp products with more Delta-9-THC then legal cannabis edibles can be legally sold to a 10-year-old in our state at any corner store,” the report says. “There is also a vast market of illegally sold inhalable and edible hemp products with high doses of psychoactive cannabinoids like Delta-8-THC, HHC and THC-P, synthetically derived from CBD in hemp.”

Authors noted that recent emergency regulations from Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) aim to address the issue of unregulated hemp products. Announced last month, the new rules outlaw intoxicating hemp products and those with any “detectable amount of total THC.”

An industry effort to halt enforcement of the new regulations banning fell short earlier this month, with a state judge denying a request for a temporary restraining order. The suit says the rules are based on a faulty declaration of “emergency” and come after officials failed to effectively implement hemp regulation legislation that was enacted in 2021.

Meanwhile, states around the country are moving to enact similar cannabinoid restrictions in an effort to limit the proliferation of intoxicating hemp-derived products following the federal 2018 Farm Bill’s legalization of the crop. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D), for example, signed a bill into law last month putting hemp products under the purview of the state’s cannabis commission, a move that’s also sparked a court challenge.

Somewhat similar discussions about how to regulate hemp derivatives are playing out at the federal level, as congressional lawmakers consider legislative provisions to impose a general ban on hemp-derived cannabinoids such as delta-8 THC.

Rep. Mary Miller’s (R-IL) amendment to the 2024 Farm Bill, for example, was approved by a House committee in May and would remove cannabinoids that are “synthesized or manufactured outside of the plant” from the federal definition of legal hemp. The change is backed by prohibitionists as well as some marijuana companies, who’ve described the restriction as a fix to a “loophole” that was created under the 2018 Farm Bill that federally legalized hemp and its derivatives.

Anti-drug groups, law enforcement and some health organizations have called on Congress to embrace the ban, arguing that “trying to regulate semi-synthetic cannabinoids will not work.”

In addition to Miller’s amendment in the 2025 Farm Bill, the House Appropriations Committee in July approved a separate spending bill that contains a similar provision to prohibit cannabinoid products such as delta-8 THC and CBD containing any “quantifiable” amount of THC.

Hemp-derived cannabinoids also came up in a recent federal appeals court decision in which judges ruled that cannabinoids derived from hemp, such as THC-O-acetate, indeed qualify as hemp and are legal under the 2018 Farm Bill. In making that ruling, the court rejected the Drug Enforcement Administration’s more restrictive interpretation of the law.

How to address hemp-derived cannabinoids has caused some fractures within the cannabis community, and in some cases marijuana businesses have found themselves on the same side as prohibitionists in pushing a derivatives ban.

As for THC potency, meanwhile, GOP House and Senate lawmakers well-known for opposing marijuana reform earlier this year introduced a concurrent resolution calling on federal agencies to study the potential risks of high potency THC products.

New York’s governor earlier this year, meanwhile, called for the elimination of a THC potency tax as part of her executive budget, aiming to reduce costs for consumers in a way that could make the regulated market more competitive against illicit operators.

Separately, some states have run into issues of lab operators allegedly inflating THC potency numbers in order to boost products’ appeal with consumers, who sometimes shop for products based on their advertised strength.

Meanwhile in California, Newsom recently signed a bill to legalize cannabis cafes in the state—just one day after vetoing a separate proposal to allow small marijuana growers to sell their products directly to consumers at state-organized farmers markets.

He also signed a series of modest reform proposals over the weekend, including a proposal to make it so medical marijuana donated to low-income patients is tax-exempt and another measure to prevent what advocates call the “double taxation” of marijuana by restricting the ability of local governments to calculate their cannabis levies after state taxes are already applied.

While the governor supports cannabis legalization, he’s been notably reserved about various drug policy proposals in recent years, for example vetoing legislation to legalize psychedelics and allow safe consumption sites for illegal drugs, in addition to nixing the farmers market proposal.

Separately, a state-funded effort is underway in California to analyze the genetic information of various marijuana strains in order to preserve the state’s rich history of cannabis cultivation. It’s part of a project meant not only to acknowledge the past but also protect the future of legacy growing regions such as the Emerald Triangle.

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Federal Agency Notes Widespread Medical Marijuana Use By Cancer Patients, Saying Rescheduling Can ‘Open The Doors’ To More Research

A federal health agency is acknowledging that a sizable portion—between about 20 percent and 40 percent—of people being treated for cancer are using cannabis products to manage side effects from the condition and associated treatment.

Such widespread uptake by patients raises concerns that use is outpacing scientific knowledge on efficacy and risks, the agency said in a blog post published on Wednesday, but added that rescheduling marijuana could help remove current barriers to research to address the “scientific evidence deficit.”

“According to findings from several of the studies, anywhere from about 20% to 40% of people being treated for cancer use cannabis or cannabinoids,” the National Cancer Institute (NCI) post says, “often broadly referred to as medical marijuana—to help manage side effects like nausea, pain, sleeplessness, anxiety, and stress.”

“The growing popularity of cannabis products among people with cancer has tracked with the increasing number of states that have legalized cannabis for medical use,” it continues. “But research has lagged on whether and which cannabis products are a safe or effective way to help with cancer-related symptoms and treatment-related side effects.”

Nearly 3 in 4 Americans now live in a state where medical marijuana is legal, the post says, citing a Pew Research Center study from February.

Mohab Ibrahim, a physician and the medical director of the Comprehensive Center for Pain and Addiction at the University of Arizona Health Sciences, noted in the NCI post that some evidence shows marijuana can suppress a person’s immune system, especially when used long-term, or interact negatively with other medications, for example increasing drowsiness.

He explained that federal prohibition makes it “challenging to test cannabis products in clinical settings,” the post says in a section about the “cannabis-and-cancer information gap,” noting that Ibrahim and others “said they hope cannabis will eventually be reclassified as a schedule 2 or 3 drug, which would likely open the doors for more studies.”

A series of new studies is putting a spotlight on the growing use of #cannabis among #CancerSurvivors and some of the trend’s downstream effects. Learn more: https://t.co/z1PHwJUSZ0pic.twitter.com/qz8owNLJA4

— NCI Cancer Control (@NCICancerCtrl) October 16, 2024

Among the research cited in the new NCI post is a series of scientific reports published last month in NCI’s journal JNCI Monographs. The package of 14 articles detailed the results of broad, federally funded cannabis surveys of cancer patients from a dozen agency-designated cancer centers across the country—including in areas where marijuana is legal, permitted only for medical purposes or still outlawed.

A main finding of one study led by NCI researchers, for example, is that patients’ “reported use of cannabis since diagnosis varied only slightly by legal status.” Of those surveyed between September 2021 and August 2032, 34.3 percent of patients who resided in states where marijuana was legal reported using the substance, compared to 31.5 percent in medical-only states and 24.7 percent in states where cannabis was illegal.

In all, just under a third (32.9 percent) of patients reported using cannabis, with respondents reporting that they used marijuana primarily to treat cancer- and treatment-related symptoms such as difficulty sleeping, pain and mood changes. The most common perceived benefits “were for pain, sleep, stress and anxiety, and treatment side effects,” the report says.

Separately, another recent study, in the journal Discover Oncology, concluded that a variety of cannabinoids—including delta-9 THC, CBD and cannabigerol (CBG)—“show promising potential as anticancer agents through various mechanisms,” for example by limiting the growth and spread of tumors. Authors acknowledged that obstacles to incorporating cannabis into cancer treatment remain, however, such as regulatory barriers and the need to determine optimal dosing.

Earlier this year, other research on the possible therapeutic value of lesser-known compounds in cannabis found that a number of minor cannabinoids may have anticancer effects on blood cancer that warrant further study.

That research, published in the journal BioFactors, looked at minor cannabinoids and multiple myeloma (MM), testing responses in cell models to the cannabinoids CBG, CBC, CBN and CBDV as well as studying CBN in a mouse model.

“Together, our results suggest that CBG, CBC, CBN, and CBDV can be promising anticancer agents for MM,” authors wrote, “due to their cytotoxic effect on MM cell lines and, for CBN, in in vivo xenograft mouse model of MM.”

While cannabis is widely used to treat certain symptoms of cancer and some side-effects of cancer treatment, there’s long been interest in the possible effects of cannabinoids on cancer itself.

As a 2019 literature review found, the majority of the studies have also been based on in vitro experiments, meaning they did not involve human subjects but rather isolated cancer cells from humans, while some of the research used mice. Consistent with the latest findings, that study found cannabis showed potential in slowing the growth of cancer cells and even killing cancer cells in certain cases.

A separate study found that some cases, different types of cancer cells affecting the same part of the body appeared to respond differently to various cannabis extracts.

A scientific review of CBD earlier this year also touched on “the diverse anticancer properties of cannabinoids” that the authors said present “promising opportunities for future therapeutic interventions in cancer treatment.”

Research published late last year found that marijuana use was associated with improved cognition and reduced pain among cancer patients and people receiving chemotherapy

While cannabis produces intoxicating effects, and that initial “high” can temporarily impair cognition, patients who used marijuana products from state-licensed dispensaries over two weeks actually started reporting clearer thinking, the study from the University of Colorado found.

Late last year, the National Institutes of Health awarded researchers $3.2 million to study the effects of using cannabis while receiving immunotherapy for cancer treatment, as well as whether access to marijuana helps reduce health disparities.

Federal courts are also considering two separate lawsuits on legal access to therapeutic psilocybin among cancer patients in end-of-life care.

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