After the partial legalisation of cannabis, Bavaria wants to limit public places for smoking pot as much as possible: celebrations – especially Oktoberfest – should, if possible, become completely cannabis-free zones, German media reported.
According to the German Press Agency, the state government is also considering a ban on pot smoking in the English Garden in Munich. Beer gardens and outdoor areas of restaurants could also become prohibited cannabis zones.
Nothing concrete was decided at Tuesday’s cabinet meeting, as Chancellor Florian Herrmann (CSU) said afterwards. All proposals are currently being studied in detail. He emphasised:
“The aim is of course to make consumption unattractive.”
The Bavarians want to amend the regulations because they believe that the youth protection aspect is not sufficiently addressed in federal legislation. The ministries are therefore studying further options for “restricting” cannabis, a decision on which could be made as early as next week.
Violating the new cannabis law in Bavaria will result in heavy fines – for example, €1,000 for smoking pot in the presence of children or teenagers. This follows an extensive catalogue of fines drawn up by the Bavarian Ministry of Health, which will come into effect on 1 April.
In particular, Herrmann favoured an ordinance that would allow municipalities to determine for themselves which areas should be cannabis-free, similar to what has already been done for alcohol-free zones. And he added:
“Which would then also be a solution, for example for folk festivals or for the Oktoberfest, as is also expected by the industry.”
In fact, the law on cannabis for public festivals does not contain any regulations. However, many organisers have already drawn attention to the requirement that cannabis use is not allowed in the immediate vicinity of children and teenagers – and many families with children usually come to folk festivals.
Munich-based economist and Oktoberfest boss Clemens Baumgärtner (CSU) said at a cabinet meeting:
“The law says that children and young people must be protected. From this I conclude: Oktoberfest and smoking weed do not go together.”
The chairman of the South German Showmen’s Union, Lorenz Kalb, argues, however, that the legal framework is insufficient, so they have written to the state parliament and also Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU). He said:
“Cannabis has no place at folk festivals. We have it every 60 or 70 meters at the latest a children’s store.”
In Nuremberg, it was said that the law does not set out how individual exclusion zones are to be defined. It is this gap that the Bavarian state government apparently wants to remedy.
The English Garden in Munich is in the hands of the state through the Bavarian Palace Office. Now, as for the Hofgarten in Bayreuth, the park rules there may be changed and smoking pot in these areas may be fundamentally banned.
E-cigarettes and similar devices are not yet covered by the legal ban on smoking in restaurants and other places. But that could change: the state government is considering extending the smoking ban to e-cigarettes, which can be used to vapourise tobacco and cannabis. A general ban on smoking cannabis in special smoking rooms is also being considered.
A ban on cannabis smoking could extend to beer gardens and outdoor restaurant areas, as cannabis cannot be consumed in the immediate presence of minors and their presence in beer gardens cannot be reliably excluded. The inclusion of this provision in the Health Protection Act, which regulates the previous general smoking ban, is currently under consideration.
