Alleged abuse of industrial hemp: unrealistic, uneconomical and practically impossible

BvCW: Industrial hemp should be completely removed from the Narcotics Act, BfARM expert committee recommends amendment

Berlin, 02/07/2022 – The German Cannabis Business Association has documented in comprehensive research why it is practically impossible for industrial hemp to be misused for intoxication purposes. “After reading it, it should be clear that the numerous charges against small and medium-sized companies in this regard should now be dropped,” says Marijn Roersch van der Hoogte, department coordinator for industrial hemp and food at the BvCW. According to the exception in the Narcotics Act (BtMG), the sale or distribution of industrial hemp is only permitted if misuse (for intoxication purposes) is ruled out. In the past, this has repeatedly led to investigations, raids and business obstructions.

Numerous public prosecutors are currently trying to have entrepreneurs sentenced to prison because even industrial hemp products with a very low THC content of less than 0.2 % are assumed to have a potential for abuse. For comparison: black market cannabis currently has an average THC content of over 13 %. It is undisputed that you cannot smoke that much industrial hemp. What has been disputed in court so far, however, is the extent to which abuse through the production of hemp cookies can be ruled out. With its research, the BvCW is now comprehensively demonstrating why misuse is ruled out in practice. “Costs and effort are disproportionate to the yield, and high-potency cannabis is readily available on the black market,” van der Hoogte continues.

Comparison of THC from the black market vs. THC from industrial hemp for the end user:

The “Expert Committee for Narcotics according to § 1 para. 2 BtMG and New Psychoactive Substances according to § 7 NpSG” of the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM) already recommended changes to this last year, appropriately enough, which aim to ensure that it should no longer be a prerequisite for the trade in industrial hemp that this must be for “commercial or scientific purposes”. Furthermore, the Federal Court of Justice recently made it clear in its judgment AZ 6 StR 240/20 of 24.03.2022 that sales to end customers are also to be classified as “commercial”. Nevertheless, a large number of criminal proceedings are currently underway against companies and traders.

“Although there have been no changes to the Narcotics Act (BtmG) since 1996, public prosecutors and local authorities have been interpreting the existing law ever more strictly in recent years.

This legal criterion of “abuse” is also proving to be superfluous in practice and counterproductive for the market with the agricultural product industrial hemp. With the forthcoming sale of cannabis for recreational purposes, the so-called “abuse criterion” proves to be doubly invalid. Industrial hemp has no place in the Narcotics Act and must be removed from it immediately.

The constructive proposal of the expert committee should therefore be implemented as quickly as possible. This would relieve the burden on the judiciary and create more legal certainty for the industry,” says Jürgen Neumeyer, Managing Director of the BvCW.

You can find the expert recommendation here
The expert opinion on why the misuse of industrial hemp is practically impossible can be found: here