Bavaria bans cannabis use at Oktoberfest

For two centuries, Oktoberfest has been a major event on the German social calendar. Photo: NurPhoto/Getty Images Contributor

Oktoberfest lovers can drink all the beer they want when they come to Bavaria this year, but anyone hoping to enjoy a joint will be disappointed.

On Tuesday, southern Germany The land announced that it would ban beer. consumption of marijuana in public places, including beer gardens, amid fears that Olaf Scholz's recent legalization of the drug will plunge the festival into cannabis chaos.

For two centuries, Oktoberfest has been the highlight of Germany's social calendar, with thousands of people filling themselves with the country's best beer and waiters staggering around with six mugs in each hand.

But Clemens Baumgaertner, the conservative CSU politician in charge of planning Oktoberfest, said he wants the festival to be weed-free.

“Cannabis simply has no place at Oktoberfest,” he said online. news portal. “For me, family holidays like Oktoberfest and marijuana use are incompatible.”

The new rules include a ban on the use of cannabis in any form at Oktoberfest to ensure that the event remains a family-friendly event. Since the first Oktoberfest in 1810, it has grown into a major public festival. Photo: Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images Europe

Markus Söder, the president of Bavaria, said the new rules would strengthen the “protection of children and young people” by giving local municipalities the power to ban cannabis in certain places.

“We will ban smoking weed in beer.” gardens and festivals. In addition, municipalities will be able to ban smoking and consumption of cannabis products in public places where many people regularly gather in enclosed spaces, such as tourist attractions, outdoor swimming pools and amusement parks, he said.

Argument reflects growing tensions between Mr Scholz's liberal federal government and the CSU in Bavaria, one of Germany's most conservative regions.

Germany voted on April 1 for a new law that would allow Germans over 18 to carry up to 25g cannabis and grow up to three cannabis plants at home.

The drug remains completely prohibited for people under 18 and cannot be consumed within a hundred meters of playgrounds, schools and nurseries. .

The first Oktoberfest took place on October 12, 1810 to celebrate the wedding of Crown Prince Ludwig von Bavaria and Princess Theresa and subsequently grew into a major public festival.