The deutsches Reinheinsgebot (German purity law) regulates the quality and preserves the prestige of German beer. But what about cannabis? Industry representatives are planning their own weed purity laws ahead of legalisation.

Germany plans weed quality control laws

Germany’s steps towards legalisation are looking slow, but they are taking shape. On Thursday, members of Branchenverband Cannabiswirtschaft e.V, which represents Germany’s cannabis production industry, released a report on how they believe cannabis production should be strictly regulated in order to maintain standards. The suggested laws are being compared to the deutsches Reinheitsgebot, which rules that basic brewing techniques in Germany must only include four ingredients: water, malt, hops and yeast.

The report recommends particular quality requirements in plants at each stage, from harvesting and processing to packaging and storage. How edible cannabis products should be regulated is also outlined, with the inclusion that foods which constrain cannabis should be marked as “novel foods”.

Industry representatives also write that the cannabis purity law should forbid the use of certain pesticides and synthetically produced products which mimic the effects of cannabis.

German marijuana industry wants to supplant illegal market

“The cornerstone of safe cannabis legalisation for recreational purposes are quality assurance measures and orientation towards already existing standards,” the team of cultivation, laboratory and food control experts write in the report’s introduction.

For Dirk Heitepriem, vice president of the Branchenverband Cannabiswirtschaft e.V, only by implementing Germany’s Reinheitsgebot for cannabis can legalisation fulfil its purpose, to make the country’s black market obsolete. “Only with the highest of quality controls can we push back the illegal market and reach the German government's goal of protecting health and young people,” Heitepriem told the dpa.

Though certain customers will certainly value the quality, there have also been doubts about how the increased price of marijuana on the legal market will manage to quell a customer base for more affordable weed. Some estimate that legally produced weed in Germany could cost almost two times as much as illegal market products when it arrives, around 12 or 13 euros per gram, rather than six to eight euros.

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