The cannabis industry that has just started in Germany is reaching its peak as legalization approaches

Lars Müller wants to make Starbucks marijuana: a list of dispensaries that offer a wide range of marijuana-related products, from tinctures to flowers and edible gummies.

“We want to make chains of the same color in Germany, something that involves the expertise of the Apple Store,” he said. “This is not an opium cave.”

Müller is a Synbiotic major, a leading player in the growing cannabinoid industry in Germany that sells everything from growers to researchers and retailers. It is a business that is facing a lot of challenges.

The motive was a statement late last month from three parties in the new German federal government that wanted to legalize cannabis. The cost of Synbiotic shares has doubled in volume.

In the meantime, the government’s real intentions remain unclear: it only states that it could allow “the illegal sale of cannabis to adults to enjoy in legitimate stores”. There has not been much, and there is no policy plan.

But the plan could remain a model for changing the global marijuana trade, which is overseen by other gambling nations and the liberalization of their drug laws.

“In terms of population growth, Germany will become the world’s largest drug-tolerant country,” said Constantin von der Groeben, Demecan’s chief executive officer, a local farmer. “It’s a great opportunity for us.”

Once the plan was in place, Germany would join a select group of countries that would allow the commercialization of cannabis – some with Canada and Uruguay, and a few US states. For many large countries it is still an unknown component.

But for German allies – to the left of the SPD, the free FDP and the unconventional Greens – approval was absurd, one of the few reasons he could agree.

The economic crisis also helped. Violations of the law could bring huge benefits to the government by € 4.7bn a year, including € 2.8bn in tax revenue and € 1.36bn in police and legal spending, according to a recent study by Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf.

Not surprisingly, the announcement of the agreement sparked interest in the session. Stefan Langer, the founder of Bavaria Weed, a small-scale producer, was shown in the Bild Zeitung this month wearing a crown of hemp leaves and exploding bags of leaves, under the headline: “I want to be the king of cannabis in Germany”.

Yet skeptics urge caution and reference in Canada, where the excitement sparked by the 2018 legal recognition was quickly shattered. Although 73 cannabis companies were publicly available from 2016-2019, initial interest faded when growth was not enough.

“There was a financial crisis and. . . many things came into the market, ”said Müller. “Most companies are still not making money.”

What was happening in the US also helped. “There were such high hopes [President Joe] Biden could register cannabis in the federal government and it did not hurt the general public, “said Kyle Detwiler, chief executive of Clever Leaves Holding, a Colombian manufacturer.” It was devastating. “

The rise in Canadian genocide and explosions is not possible in Germany, however, while entry barriers remain high. Companies this year have been able to grow medical cannabis in Germany, where doctors have been free to prescribe it in various ways since 2017. To date, only three companies have license licenses: Demecans, and German corporations Aphria and Aurora, both Canadians.

All three must adhere to the “best manufacturer’s design”, which is internationally recognized in the pharmaceutical industry. Some think it is not suitable for fun grass.

“The GMP rate is quite high,” Müller said. “We want a new standard between food and medicine.” He also said it could be based on a 500-year German law that describes what can be used to make alcohol.

Demecan’s von der Groeben, by contrast, sees GMP as the most important badge. “We need to make people believe, and we can’t gamble by lowering standards,” he said. “The fact that cannabis makes you feel superior means you have to make sure it is of the highest quality, without contamination.”

On the other hand, he added, some of the laws contained in Germany’s “anti-drug labels” need to be released once enacted.

The rules, for example, mean that the cannabis site in Germany is similar to Fort Knox, with its storage facilities similar to the most secure banking rooms. Demecan’s 5,000-square-foot[5 sq m]area, located on a slaughterhouse near Dresden, has solid concrete walls and is surrounded by CCTV cameras and technical alarms.

“Video surveillance and theft alarms are essential, but the same type of bunkers we currently have may not be necessary,” said von der Groeben.

Yet experts think the warning will be a German word of warning, certainly at the very beginning of the industry. Berlin will be hard pressed to avoid events such as the “lung injury” outbreak in the US in 2019 that is linked to the use of black market resources.

“What would happen if a gummy that was supposed to contain 5mg of THC had 100mg?” said Detwiler, referring to the cannabis component that makes users superior. “What would happen to the children they adopted?”

“If I had been a German government I would have started slowly,” he continued. “I think he is very careful about this.”