Germany: police raid cannabis store

After Switzerland, Italy, France and Belgium, Germany, too, is getting into the cannabis light business. And while each country has different responses to the emergence of these businesses, the French authorities are not alone in reacting to these entrepreneurs. In Berlin, police have just carried out a large-scale raid on a hemp bar that was also selling CBD cannabis flowers.

Hanfbar

The Hanfbar opened just over a year ago in the university district of Braunschweig. The menu features homemade salads, drinks, hemp-based energy bars and CBD cannabis infusions.

The Hanfbar opened a second store in Berlin in May, where rapper Marvin Game presented his light variety «Obstsalat» (fruit salad), and plans to open a third in Braunschweig.

The bar hadn't had any trouble with the police, until the intervention of the of 6 police officers in early July.

Search

On July 5, German police called in two lorries and a dozen officers to conduct a search of the company's Hanfbar, for «alleged drug trafficking».

In the police's sights are CBD cannabis infusions with -0.2% THC. For Bardia Hatefi, manager of the Hanfbar We have nothing to hide. We are a wellness store. The THC content of our CBD products is so low that it has no intoxicating effect. Even if you smoke the flowers, which we don't recommend.

Nevertheless, 3 kilograms of infusions were seized, and the owners' homes searched in the process.

The question now is whether and when the goods will be returned to the Hanfbar. The young entrepreneurs are free and have not been taken into custody, unlike French CBD store owners.

The opening of their third store is maintained.