"Great feeling" German cultivation club distributes cannabis for the first time

Cannabis cultivation clubs have been licensed since the summer. In Ganderkesee near Oldenburg, cannabis is now being legally distributed to members for the first time.

DPA

02.11.2024, 17:16

dpa

For the first time, a cultivation club in Ganderkesee near Oldenburg in Lower Saxony has distributed legally grown cannabis to its members. Michael Jaskulewicz was the first member of the Cannabis Social Club Ganderkesee to receive a few grams of different strains of the drug. "Being here and picking it up was an absolutely awesome feeling," he said.

First club with cannabis harvest

Since July, cannabis cultivation clubs have been permitted in Germany for the communal cultivation and distribution of cannabis. According to the club in Ganderkesee, it was the first club in Germany to produce a legal cannabis harvest.

According to a spokeswoman for the Federal Drug Commissioner, no other club is known to have started harvesting earlier. However, she pointed out that the authority has no official information on the harvest situation of the individual cultivation associations. It is known that the association in Ganderkesee is very advanced.

Members come from the heart of society

"Our members come from the middle of society," said association chairman Daniel Keune. The age range extends from 18 to 70, from employees to entrepreneurs.

The association has been working on the topic of legalizing cannabis consumption in Germany for two years, said Keune. Partial legalization enables preventative health protection because the association guarantees that the cannabis dispensed is safe and free of additives. "This health protection that we can provide has already motivated us."

No more dirty stuff from the street

Because he was one of the very first supporters of the association, he was allowed to collect the first grams of the drug, said Jaskulewicz. He had already smoked in the 1990s, but had given up after he was given contaminated cannabis on the street: "After that, I was in a very bad way and I thought, you're not going to do that anymore."

The recent discussion about the partial legalization of cannabis gave him food for thought. He has decided to stop drinking beer in front of his five-year-old child. "I would like to see society move more in this direction and consider that cigarette consumption and alcohol consumption is also something that should be avoided in front of children."