Industrial Hemp Liberalisation Act

Article by Dentons Law Firm https://www.dentons.com/en/global-presence/europe/germany

July 18, 2024

On July 8, 2024, the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (“BMEL”) published a draft law to liberalize the cultivation and handling of industrial hemp (Industrial Hemp Liberalization Act – “NLG”).

The reason for the draft law is that the BMEL is convinced of the many advantages of industrial hemp cultivation in terms of sustainability, climate protection and biodiversity.

However, in the BMEL’s view, the current legal regulations create legal uncertainty and prevent the further development of this sector.One of the measures proposed by the BMEL to achieve its goal is the reformulation of the term “industrial hemp” in Section 1 No. 9 a.) of the Consumer Cannabis Act (“KCanG”). The so-called abuse clause, which dates back to the old legal provisions of the Narcotics Act (“BtMG”), is to be deleted. The exception for cannabis in Annex I BtMG only included marijuana and plants and parts of plants of the cannabis genus if the trade in them (with the exception of cultivation) was exclusively for commercial or scientific purposes that excluded abuse for intoxication purposes. This wording was adopted in the KCanG for industrial hemp. This restriction has so far been interpreted very restrictively by the courts. According to established case law, the trade in hemp products – such as industrial hemp tea or CBD flowers – is punishable despite compliance with the THC limit of 0.3% even if abuse for intoxication purposes is unlikely but not completely excluded. In the opinion of the BMEL, this leads to an unreasonable restriction on the trade in industrial hemp products. With the adoption of the KCanG and the introduction of a legal procurement option, such provisions are no longer necessary. In addition, the requirement of a “commercial or scientific purpose” is also to be deleted. According to established case law, it is sufficient if there is a commercial purpose on one side of the transaction. The BMEL considers this requirement to be superfluous because it no longer has any significant regulatory content.

The indoor cultivation of industrial hemp is also to be permitted. The BMEL would like to offer other economic operators the opportunity to participate in the cultivation of industrial hemp.

The draft law will now be submitted for interdepartmental approval.

https://www.dentons.com/de/insights/alerts/2024/july/18/industrial-hemp-liberalization-law