No Changes Expected To Luxembourg’s New Cannabis Law
Luxembourg became the fourth nation to ever pass a national adult-use cannabis law when it did so earlier this year. Luxembourg joined its European counterpart, Malta, which passed a national measure in late 2021. The other two legalized nations are Uruguay (2013) and Canada (2018).
Out of the four countries, Luxembourg’s legalization model is the most restrictive. It only provides for legal personal cultivation (4 plants per adult household), decriminalized possession (up to 3 grams away from the home, still punishable by a fine at the discretion of the public prosecutor’s office), and private consumption.
That legalization model is a far cry from what is found in Canada, where cultivation by adults is also permitted in most parts of the country, yet personal possession is permitted without the threat of a fine, and commercial cannabis sales are permitted in many forms.
Cannabis advocates were hopeful that Luxembourg’s law would be treated as a step in the right direction versus being a final destination, however, there appear to be no changes on the horizon to the nation’s new law.
The current CSV-DP government recently published a document outlining its priorities for the coming years, and while recently adopted cannabis policies are not expected to regress in the coming years, they are not expected to progress either.
According to the CSV-DP government’s professed priorities, personal cultivation will remain legal even though CSV voted against it when the measure was considered in the Chamber, and any reform beyond that limited scope will remain off the table, at least for now.
Luxembourg, like every other nation in Europe, is not considering its approach to cannabis policy in a vacuum. Several other countries are working to modernize their own cannabis policies, not the least of which is Luxembourg’s neighbor Germany.
Lawmakers in Luxembourg may want to cling to the status quo right now, but that will become increasingly more difficult as the cannabis policy landscape continues to evolve across the European continent.