In conversation with RTL, Minister of Health Paulette Lenert recently showed herself confident that a concept for the legalisation of cannabis in Luxembourg will soon be presented to the government.
According to Minister Lenert, the government council will soon receive details from the pilot project on cannabis legalisation. The state-controlled sale of cannabis is expected to be permitted in the context of an "experiment", similar to the way in which Germany plans on legalising it. Minister Lenert explained that this pathway ensures that no international laws are violated.
She is confident that at the very least, a concept will be ready for presentation in the near future. The purpose of the undertaking is to show that a different handling of cannabis can lead to better results than the current policies of repression, which the Minister believes are yet to bear fruit.
Still, the Minister was unwilling to indicate whether the respective draft law will be filed before the elections later this year.
Amendments in the work
Following the evaluation of the state council, which was issued about a month ago and retained four points of formal opposition, the Ministry of Justice is now working on amending the draft bill. The updated version aims for a de-penalisation of limited cannabis possession as well as cultivation authorisation for up to four plants at home.
The government coalition is said to be pushing for legislation to be passed before the Chamber elections in October, but that will be a race against time.
Support from abroad
According to Minister Lenert, Luxembourgish authorities are in close consultation with other countries. She argued that it is helpful that a large country like Germany is also pushing for legalisation.
On Wednesday, German authorities presented new plans for the partial legalisation of cannabis. Initially, the governing coalition wanted to introduce further reaching legalisation and had presented a key point paper on this last October.
However, this likely would have contradicted EU law, as member states are obligated to criminalise the illegal trade of drugs, including cannabis.
