Germany
Cannabis use and its settings before and after legalisation in Germany
This ecological momentary assessment study monitored daily cannabis use among forty-nine participants before and after the April 2024 German reform. Younger participants showed a selective rise in the amounts consumed. Amounts rose in outdoor locations and fell in public settings, and the probability of use was higher on holidays.
- Younger participants showed a selective increase in the quantity consumed (β = 0.01, 95% CI 0.00 to 0.02).
- Amounts rose in outdoor environments (β = 0.19, 95% CI 0.04 to 0.34) and fell in public settings (β = −0.46, 95% CI −0.66 to −0.25).
- The probability of use — not the amount — was higher on holidays (β = 3.91, 95% CI 1.68 to 9.08).
- The abstract states no limitations of the study.
Our view
An observational study with forty-nine participants. It cannot be read as a picture of Germany. What the reform coincided with was a shift in setting: amounts consumed rose outdoors (β = 0.19, 95% CI 0.04 to 0.34) and fell in public settings (β = −0.46, 95% CI −0.66 to −0.25). The selective rise in amounts was observed in younger participants only, not across all ages. For holidays the paper reports a higher probability of consumption, not a larger amount, and reading it as a rise in quantity is an error. This study examined legalisation, not decriminalisation; the two are distinct arrangements and cannot be carried across to other countries as though they were the same.
Sources
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