German Judges Association Warns Against Reversing Legalization

When some people think about the economics of cannabis legalization, they tend to focus on revenue generation from industry taxes and fees, which is understandable. After all, the emerging legal cannabis industry is capable of generating considerable sums if it is allowed to legally operate.

However, there is more to the legalization economic equation than just revenue generation. There is also revenue savings involved when governments refrain from enforcing failed cannabis prohibition policies, and that is true in Germany where cannabis became legal for adult use in April 2024.

Germany’s criminal justice system and taxpayers are big winners of German legalization. Law enforcement in Germany can focus on fighting real crime, the court dockets are freed up to address cases that actually need to be addressed, and Germany’s limited public resources can be used for more meaningful public projects.

The New Association of Judges (NRV) in Germany seems to agree, having recently expressed a positive conclusion regarding legalization and warned newly elected German lawmakers against reversing the CanG law.

“Rolling back the law would mean that the judiciary would have to pursue small consumers on a large scale again. This would mean there would be no time to take action against organized crime.” reported Deutschlandfunk in its local coverage.

“In addition, according to the NRV, the state faces high compensation payments in the event of withdrawal. If the cultivation and consumption of cannabis were to be completely banned again, this would amount to expropriation of the cannabis clubs, it was said. This would enable the clubs to make claims for compensation against the state. The investment in cannabis cultivation is high and the licenses are valid for seven years according to the law.” the outlet also stated.

The Institute for Competition Economics at the Heinrich Heine University in Duesseldorf previously conducted an analysis which found that adult-use legalization could yield as much as 1.3 billion euros per year in savings for Germany’s police and judicial system.