GERMANY was embroiled in a controversy over drugs yesterday after the northern state of Schleswig Holstein announced it would allow chemist shops to sell hashish and marijuana to anyone over 16.
The state's ruling coalition of Social Democrats and Greens said the move, which initially will apply only to the state capital, Kiel, and surrounding districts, was an effort to protect cannabis users from more dangerous drugs, such as cocaine and heroin.
The state's health minister, Ms Heide Moser, claimed it was necessary to separate the markets for hard and soft drugs to make official warnings on drug use credible to young people.
"General warnings about the dangers of drugs are no longer being taken seriously. That has terrible consequences, especially when it comes to the abuse of the designer drug Ecstasy," she said.
Conservative politicians reacted angrily to the decision, which must be ratified by the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Products before it comes into force.
The spokesman on drugs for the federal government in Bonn, Mr Eduard Lintner, dismissed the plans as dangerous and unrealistic and warned they could start an irreversible momentum towards legalising drugs.
"The suspicion that Schleswig Holstein is trying to clear the way for legalising hashish and marijuana is obviously well founded," he said.
The leader of the Christian Democrat opposition in Schleswig Holstein accused the state government of verging on illegality with the proposal, which he described as senseless, dangerous and morally reprehensible.
The state government backed down from its original plan to grow cannabis for sale to chemist shops after the Federal Interior Ministry warned that such a move would make the legal ban on home grown cannabis unenforceable. Supplies will now be imported from countries where the drug is already legal.
Germany's Constitutional Court ruled in March 1994 that the possession of small quantities of soft drugs should no longer be punished, although it remains illegal.
Under the new measure, potsmokers in Kiel will be able to buy up to 5 gm of hash or marijuana from their chemist. Each piece of hash will be stamped with the official, symbol of the state to distinguish it from the illegal variety and prices will be higher than on the black market to discourage, resale.
