When was cannabis banned in Germany? History since 1929

In Germany, cannabis was long a medicine and hemp a useful crop. It was not banned because of a problem in the country, but because an international agreement required it. Here are the most important dates from 1872 to today, each with a source.

In short: Since the Opium Act of 10 December 1929, handling Indian hemp in Germany has required a licence. Doctors could still prescribe it. Possession only became a criminal offence at the end of 1971, and cannabis resin became non-marketable with the Narcotic Drugs Act of 1982. Since 1 April 2024, adults have again been allowed to possess and grow cannabis within fixed limits.

A medicine in the German Empire

1 June 1872: The first common pharmacopoeia of the German Reich (Pharmacopoea Germanica) lists Indian hemp, its extract and a tincture as medicines.
1878: In the German Reich, hemp is grown as a fibre crop on around 21,200 hectares, half of it in Baden and Württemberg.
1911 to 1912: Hague Opium Conference: Italy brings up Indian hemp, and only the USA supports this. It goes no further than the wish to study hemp. The Reich government is against restrictions, explicitly because of its pharmaceutical importance.
24 July 1921: The President of the Reich Health Office writes to the Reich Ministry of the Interior: “Indian hemp is not used for purposes of abuse in Germany; smoking hashish is not customary here.”

Into the 1920s, the authorities saw no problem of misuse. The first Opium Act of 1920 regulated opium, opiates and cocaine, but not cannabis.

Geneva 1925 and the Opium Act of 1929

December 1924: At the League of Nations’ Second Opium Conference in Geneva, the Egyptian delegate proposes including hashish. Hemp was not on the agenda. South Africa had made a similar suggestion to the League of Nations in 1923.
14 February 1925: The plenary adopts the text on hemp. Only Siam votes against. According to the historian Tilmann Holzer, the German delegation does not take part in the debate.
19 February 1925: The International Opium Convention is signed. It regulates the export of hemp resin between states, not cultivation and consumption within a country.
15 August 1929: Germany deposits its ratification.
10 December 1929: Gesetz über den Verkehr mit Betäubungsmitteln (Opium Act): Indian hemp is among the substances covered. Handling it requires a licence; prescription by a doctor remains possible.

So in 1929, “banned” did not mean that cannabis disappeared from circulation altogether. What was punishable was trading without a licence, not possession as such.

Federal Republic: tightening in 1971 and the Narcotic Drugs Act of 1982

30 March 1961: United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs: cannabis comes under international control, and non-medical use is to be ended. The Federal Republic ratifies it in 1973.
22 December 1971: Amendment of the Opium Act: possession as such becomes a criminal offence, and in particularly serious cases up to ten years in prison are possible. From January 1972, the act is called the Narcotic Drugs Act (Betäubungsmittelgesetz).
19 December 1973: In the GDR, the Suchtmittelgesetz (Addictive Substances Act) explicitly prohibits trade in cannabis.
1 January 1982: The new Narcotic Drugs Act comes into force. Cannabis resin is listed in Annex I, the list of non-marketable substances. This also bans the cultivation of fibre hemp.
1996: Fibre hemp with no more than 0.3 per cent THC may be grown again.

In 1971, the Federal Government justified the tightening, among other things, by saying that “in all probability [...] it can be assumed that the drug performs a pacemaker function”, and that legalisation would breach the Geneva Convention of 1925.

The Federal Constitutional Court in 1994

1992: With § 31a of the Narcotic Drugs Act, the public prosecutor’s office can refrain from prosecution in the case of a small amount for personal use.
9 March 1994: The Federal Constitutional Court rules on referrals from courts including the Lübeck Regional Court (BVerfGE 90, 145).

The court held the ban to be constitutional: “The limits of Art. 2(1) of the Basic Law apply to dealing with drugs. There is no ‘right to intoxication’ that would be exempt from these restrictions.” In cases of occasional personal use of small amounts without any risk to others, however, the authorities would “in principle” have to refrain from prosecution. On the justification of 1971, the court noted that the view that cannabis has a “pacemaker function” leading to harder drugs is “predominantly rejected”.

Cannabis as medicine in 2017

19 January 2017: The Bundestag unanimously passes the “Cannabis as Medicine” act.
10 March 2017: The act comes into force: doctors can prescribe flowers and extracts, and under certain conditions health insurance pays. A Cannabis Agency is set up at the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices.
2 December 2020: The United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs removes cannabis from Schedule IV of the Single Convention, the strictest list. It remains in Schedule I.

The road to the Cannabis Act, 2021 to 2024

7 December 2021: Coalition agreement of the SPD, the Greens and the FDP: the plan is controlled distribution to adults “in licensed shops”.
26 October 2022: The Federal Cabinet approves key points.
12 April 2023: Two-pillar model: pillar 1 private and communal cultivation, pillar 2 regional pilot projects with commercial supply chains.
16 August 2023: The Cabinet adopts the draft act, only for pillar 1.
23 February 2024: The Bundestag passes the Cannabis Act: 404 in favour, 226 against, 4 abstentions.
22 March 2024: In the Bundesrat, the motions to call the Mediation Committee fail to win a majority.
1 April 2024: The Consumer Cannabis Act (KCanG) and the Medical Cannabis Act (MedCanG) come into force. Adults may possess and grow cannabis within fixed limits.
20 June 2024: An amending act adjusts the KCanG and the MedCanG. The KCanG has remained unchanged since then.
1 July 2024: The rules for cultivation associations take effect.

The second pillar never came. In September 2026, the Federal Government stated that the coalition agreement does not provide for regional pilot projects with commercial supply chains.

Since 2025

9 April 2025: Coalition agreement of the CDU, CSU and SPD: “In autumn 2025, we will carry out an open-ended evaluation of the act legalising cannabis.”
29 September 2025: First interim report of the scientific evaluation (EKOCAN).
8 October 2025: The Cabinet adopts an amendment to the Medical Cannabis Act: flowers only after personal contact in the practice, no mail order.
1 April 2026: Second interim report of the evaluation, with data from the Federal Criminal Police Office.
22 September 2026: According to the Federal Government, the amendment to the Medical Cannabis Act is still being debated in parliament.
1 April 2028: The comprehensive evaluation report is due (§ 43 KCanG).

§ 31 para. 6 SGB V no longer lists dried flowers as a service covered by health insurance. What will happen to the KCanG is open. As of October 2026, it applies in the version of 20 June 2024.

Why was cannabis banned?

Documented

In 1929, Germany implemented an international obligation. According to the files, it had no problem of its own: in 1921, the Reich Health Office saw no misuse, and in 1925 the Foreign Office considered the Egyptian proposal to be “of no technical or commercial interest”. In 1971, the Federal Government also cited the Geneva Convention and the Single Convention.
Egypt raised hashish in Geneva in 1924. Its delegate spoke of 30 to 60 per cent of cases of “insanity” being caused by hashish. The annual report of a Cairo clinic for 1920/21 attributed 19 of 715 admissions to it. The delegates had no formal evidence before them.
German pharmaceutical interests played a role, but not in the way it is often told: in 1911, the Reich government was against restrictions on hemp precisely because of its importance as a medicine. Ratification dragged on from 1925 to 1929, according to Holzer because of interests in opiates and cocaine.

Disputed

It is often said that Germany agreed in 1925 because in return Egypt would not impose an import ban on German heroin. This claim is spread mainly by interest groups and activist websites, in each case without evidence from files or minutes, and it contradicts itself. Against it is what Holzer quotes from the Federal Archives and the conference minutes: Germany did not sit on the committee that voted in December 1924 and did not take part in the debate, and in the plenary nobody except Siam voted against. The claim is not documented and, on the basis of the files, unlikely. It could only be settled definitively with the complete minutes.

Not tenable

“Cannabis has been completely banned since 1929.” Medical use remained permitted, and possession only became a criminal offence in 1971.
“The German ban goes back to the US drug commissioner Anslinger and the Marihuana Tax Act.” The Tax Act dates from 1937, eight years after the Opium Act. The USA only had an indirect effect, through the Single Convention of 1961.
“Germany banned cannabis in 1929 because of the health risks.” There is no evidence for this; the files show the opposite.

What applies today is explained in The German Cannabis Act explained simply. How other countries regulate cannabis is covered in Cannabis laws compared.

Remember: Germany banned cannabis in 1929 because an international agreement required it, not because of a problem in the country. Possession only became a criminal offence in 1971. Since April 2024, possession and growing have again been permitted for adults within limits.

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Why cannabis was banned: the history up to today