Is Luxembourg Planning On Sidestepping Real Rec Reform?

The European country has had rec reform on its legislative agenda for the last three years. However, it increasingly looks like such plans have no intention of creating a commercial industry.

The coalition government of Luxembourg has been in the global spotlight since 2018 since it formally announced it planned to legalize recreational cannabis by 2023. Since then, however, exact steps and formal timelines have been assiduously avoided. Indeed, there have been many rumours in the last several months that the country planned to enter this space in a way that might be unexpected.

That lack of clarity came to an end last week when the government put its proposal online.

Here are some of the surprising details.

The Government Will Legalize Home Grow

Luxembourgian citizens will have the right to grow four plants at home – either indoors or outdoors – if the cannabis grow is secured and not visible to anyone passing by a public road. This is a per household, not resident law, meaning that no matter how many people live at a single address, the four plant rule will apply. This means that cannabis could be grown indoors, outdoors in a private garden, or on a balcony, out of sight of public view. 

The cannabis can be grown from seeds that will be available in stores in Luxembourg as well as imported online from overseas. This will be a huge boost for the seed stores in Holland and Spain (for starters). It may also lead to a booming “pre-recreational” cannabis market in seeds but nothing else.

Persons caught in public with more than 3 grams will still face an administrative fine (€145). 

The donation or sale of cannabis will remain illegal.

For a government that has also supposedly studied “other models” – starting with Canada, this is remarkably slow off the bat approach. Regardless, in a space currently defined by Holland and nobody else, it was unlikely that the Luxembourgian experiment was going to blow any doors off in terms of breaking the mold.

That honour will almost certainly fall to Germany – which of course in the last week has also seen its new political leaders declare that cannabis reform is a common plank if not top priority.

In the meantime, however, there will begin to be a limited cannabis market in Luxembourg, if only confined to seeds and home grow setups. And Switzerland, as well as Germany, will now almost undoubtedly set the pace for the rest of Europe.

Be sure to keep abreast of the now rapidly moving cannabis reform discussion in Europe by staying up to date with the International Cannabis Business Conference blog! Don’t forget, the International Cannabis Business Conference is returning to Europe in 2022.