Germany: a CBD vending machine dismantled by police on suspicion of trafficking

The cannabis vending machines multiplying in European cities: in Athens in Greece, in Echternach, Grevenmacher and Wiltz in Luxembourg, in Trier in Germany and even in France in the Vosges. However, machines are not exempt from control.

The public prosecutor in Trier, a city in southwestern Germany, has just had a CBD vending machine dismantled to have its products analyzed as part of a drug trafficking investigation.

France and Germany, same fight

The machine was the first of its kind in Germany. It had been installed last November and was now part of the scenery. At least until three police cars and about ten officers seized it to retrieve the products it contained and have them analyzed.

Indeed, the company that owns the distributor as well as several head shops also searched in Trier, Heidelberg, Kassel, and Bonn is under investigation by the public prosecutor for suspected drug trafficking.

The vendors are accused of distributing products containing THC. And indeed, commercially available CBD products contain THC, but below the European limit of 0.21%. However, according to the prosecutor, this limit applies only to products intended for scientific (research) or industrial (raw materials, textiles, cosmetics) purposes, and not for personal use. A Berlin bar had also been searched for the same reasons. 3 kilos of infusions had been seized.

The case echoes the French debate on hemp flowers, which the MILDECA considers that they are not authorized despite the fact that Justice sometimes recognizes the absence of an offense at the end of the trials.