When drug use increased in Germany in the late 1960’s, drug policy was still based on the Opium Act of 1929.  In 1971 a more extensive Narcotics Act (Betäubungsmittelgesetz) was adopted.  Partly in reaction to a perceived worsening of the drug situation, the current Narcotics Act was passed almost unanimously at the German Bundestag on July 28th, 1981 and entered into force in 1982.  The main objective of the Narcotics Act is the protection of public health.  Between 1982 and 1994 the Narcotics Act was amended several times to include harm reduction interventions.  The most important amendments include the following changes:

• The explicit permission by law of substitution-based treatment for drug addicts.  Methadone and other substitution therapies have been in use in Germany for years.  Along with Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Spain, Germany is currently conducting heroin maintenance trials.  
  
• In the interest of preventing the spread of HIV, German law was clarified so as to remove penalties for the supply of sterile disposable syringes to addicts.
  
• Prosecutor discretion: in the case of minor offences committed for the purpose of personal drug consumption prosecutors may elect not to press charges.   
  
• Treatment alternatives to incarceration for drug users.
  
• The introduction of new penal offences and minimum penalties in the Narcotics Act for all cases of severe drug trafficking by virtue of the Crime Suppression Act and the Act on Combating Organized Crime.
  
• The legalization of industrial hemp cultivation. 
  
• Regulation regarding the minimum standards for safe-injection rooms.

Drug Use and Possession

Public prosecutors may decline prosecution of drug offenses -- without consent by the court -- if the prosecutor considers the offender's guilt to be minor or if there is no compelling public interest in prosecution.  Although marijuana is technically illegal, personal consumption is arguably decriminalized due to the "ban on excessive punishment" inherent in German law.  More than 90 percent of marijuana-related cases in Germany where criminal prosecution was initiated but later suspended involved marijuana in quantities of less than 10 grams, although according to federal guidelines prosecution can be declined in cases of up to 30 grams in several regions.  The illicit trafficking, cultivation and manufacture of illicit drugs are considered serious offenses.  Aggravating circumstances include an adult supplying narcotics to a person under the age of 18 years, someone trafficking narcotics "professionally" or as a member of a gang, carrying a firearm or other articles which by their nature are likely and intended to cause bodily harm.