Justice Collective spoke to Philine Edbauer from the My Brain My Choice initiative about undoing the War on Drugs in Germany. We discussed the harms of prohibition and discrimination, the need for decriminalization, and other transformations for a more equitable drug policy.

Justice Collective (JC): Thanks for joining Justice Collective today for this conversation. Can you start by telling us about My Brain My Choice and why you started it?

Philine Edbauer, My Brain My Choice (MBMC): My Brain My Choice is an advocacy group that represents the interests of people who are affected by drug policy. We are volunteers, independent, and work with a low crowdfunded budget.

We engage in public education and advocacy. We founded My Brain My Choice because a small group of us realized that the voices of impacted people were mostly missing from the drug policy debate in Germany.

JC: My Brain My Choice was active in the campaign to partially legalize cannabis in Germany (resulting in the passage of a bill known as Can-G). What should our readers know about how those reforms look on the ground today, a year and a half after they went into effect?

MBMC: There's a lot of relief in our community that there is less policing of cannabis, and that we now have the option to grow or access legally grown cannabis.

But the stigma around cannabis persists. Cannabis is vilified daily by the media and politicians and we hear regular calls to repeal the partial cannabis legalization. The conservative party is working hard to undermine Can-G and it's very possible they will succeed.

The problem is that stigma leads people to remain silent about their experiences using cannabis. If they could speak up freely, there would be much more opposition to repealing the law because people could say, “Hey, I know that this dark picture about cannabis use you’re painting is not the reality”.

JC: One problem with Can-G as it's written today is that it prioritizes local, German grown cannabis for the legal cannabis market to the detriment, arguably, of farmers from traditional growing countries. Can you share your perspective on what a more just global system of drug regulation could look like that addresses this inequity?

MBMC: To me, any form of legal regulation is a positive step away from prohibition. At the same time, legal markets have many injustices and so the challenge is to create an international trading system that is regulated, that won't be exploited and monopolistic, and so on. We should have a bottom up process that includes the farmers, the producers, all of the people in the international chain of production. Those who are currently treated as “criminals” must be brought into this legal economy.

JC: My Brain My Choice recently released an action plan for German drug policy. Can you share what motivated this report and its key arguments and recommendations?

MBMC: The report moves beyond a focus on cannabis to provide an action plan for drug policy more broadly. We center the harms of prohibition and answer the questions, “How do we want to end prohibition and what comes next?”. One of the most important chapters is on reparations to those impacted by the harms of prohibition. We also have a related set of recommendations on harm reduction. We discuss the need for increased access across Germany for harm reduction services such as substitution treatment and needle exchange. At the same time, we highlight the need to stop harm production through criminalization. Increased access to harm reduction services is less impactful when prohibition continues to generate so much harm.

JC: In your view, what are the political realities that impede moving towards harm reduction approaches in Germany?

MBMC: There are a number of barriers because prohibition is still our framework for dealing with drugs. Some of those barriers are because of state policy or practice. For example, in some localities, there are agreements with prosecutors and the police that they stay away from safe consumption rooms, refraining from targeting controls there. But sometimes police do searches close to these facilities or try to enter them. This destroys trust in the services.

This also points to another barrier that comes from the movement itself. So many consider drug policy a narrow health policy problem. But as long as criminalization and policing are the norms, our system will continue to generate more harm. We need to address this too.

JC: Data in Germany shows that non-German citizens are punished more often, and more harshly, for drug-related offenses. How can we undo these inequities in drug prosecutions?

MBMC: It's critical to fight prohibition and to understand that racism is constitutive of the prohibitionist approach. This was true in the past and remains true today. In line with the global drug control system, an internationally well-connected and well-equipped police force targets racialized people, migrant communities, underfunded neighborhoods, people with psychiatric diagnoses, and young festival and partygoers. The War on Drugs is never about drugs, it’s about enforcing inequalities.

JC: Do you have any thoughts on specific police practices or laws that are particularly harmful to people who use and supply drugs?

MBMC: One thing that comes up often is the trauma people experience from police house raids. Police raid people’s homes over a couple of grams or because of speculation they may have been a supplier. It’s very traumatizing: Having the police knocking on the door or just entering by crashing the door open. I think people would be shocked to know how frequently and harshly house raids are conducted. However, official data on this are missing.

Another issue that comes up frequently is how often people have their driver’s licenses revoked, not because of driving under the influence but because of some other drug-related offense, such as possession. People cannot get to work anymore because they are simply found with drugs.

JC: Is there anything else you want to add?

MBMC: We’d encourage people to visit our website, mybrainmychoice.de, where we have a lot of material that counters prohibitionist approaches to drug policy.

I’d also flag that it’s important we pay attention to the increased use of AI in policing, and the policing of drug-related offenses. The fast uptake of AI has the potential to greatly impact users and suppliers and we need to understand those implications.