Cannabis Law in Germany: What the Konsumcannabisgesetz Allows and Where the Limits Sit

The Konsumcannabisgesetz, usually shortened to KCanG, is often described in English as German cannabis legalisation. That description is misleading in a specific and consequential way, because the statute does not start from permission.

§ 2 Abs. 1 KCanG begins with a general prohibition: possessing cannabis, cultivating it, and a list of further activities running to twelve numbered items are all forbidden. § 2 Abs. 3 KCanG then carves out defined exceptions for adults, and those exceptions are the entire content of what people mean when they say cannabis is legal in Germany.

That structure matters because an exception has edges. Step outside one of the carve outs and the general prohibition in § 2 Abs. 1 KCanG is what applies again, and the consequence is then either an Ordnungswidrigkeit under § 36 KCanG or a criminal offence under § 34 KCanG depending on how far outside the line the conduct falls.

This page sets out the carve outs in the order the statute uses them, shows exactly where the Ordnungswidrigkeit band sits between the permitted amount and the criminal threshold, and states plainly which parts of the reform debate are law and which are only proposals.

Information last verified on 20 July 2026. This page provides general legal information and does not constitute legal advice in an individual case.

The statute is a prohibition with holes cut in it

Reading § 2 KCanG first prevents most of the errors that circulate about German cannabis law. § 2 Abs. 1 KCanG sets out a general prohibition covering possession, cultivation and a further list of dealings up to acquisition and receipt, twelve numbered items in all.

§ 2 Abs. 2 KCanG adds a separate prohibition on the extraction of cannabinoids from the cannabis plant, subject to exceptions including CBD extraction and extractions needed for defined regulatory documentation purposes.

§ 2 Abs. 3 KCanG is where the exceptions for adults live. It exempts scientific dealings under Absatz 4, possession under § 3 KCanG, private Eigenanbau under § 9 KCanG, and collective Eigenanbau within an Anbauvereinigung. The same Absatz states that those exceptions do not apply within military areas of the Bundeswehr.

Everything below is a description of the shape of those holes. Nothing outside them is permitted by the KCanG, and where the KCanG does not permit conduct the prohibition and its enforcement provisions apply.

The possession figures in § 3 KCanG

§ 3 Abs. 1 KCanG permits persons who have completed their 18th year to possess up to 25 grams of cannabis for their own consumption. For flowers, blossom near leaves and other plant material of the cannabis plant, the statute measures that weight after drying, which is the reason the same physical quantity of fresh material and of dried material are treated differently.

§ 3 Abs. 2 KCanG deals with the residence. It permits up to 50 grams of dried flowers or plant material there, together with up to three living cannabis plants, and it caps the combined amount arising under Absätze 1 und 2 at 50 grams. The two figures are therefore not additive in the way they are often presented.

§ 3 Abs. 3 KCanG closes the gap. Beyond what Absatz 1 permits, possession is allowed only within the befriedetes Besitztum of an Anbauvereinigung holding a permit under § 11 Abs. 1 KCanG, or for the purposes of transport under § 22 Abs. 3 KCanG. There is no general permission attached to any other location.

Private Eigenanbau under § 9 KCanG

§ 9 Abs. 1 KCanG permits adults, within the area of application of the statute and at their residence or habitual abode, private cultivation of no more than three cannabis plants at any one time. The limit attaches to the person and to the place, and the statute counts living plants rather than yield.

§ 9 Abs. 2 KCanG states the corresponding restriction in one sentence: cannabis from private Eigenanbau may not be passed on to third parties. There is no de minimis version of that rule in the statute and no exception for sharing without payment.

Collective cultivation runs on an entirely separate track. § 11 Abs. 1 KCanG requires a permit from the competent authority for anyone who cultivates cannabis collectively and passes it to members for their own consumption, and the surrounding sections attach an extensive regulatory regime to that permit. An Anbauvereinigung is a licensed body, not a private arrangement.

Consumption is regulated separately in § 5 KCanG

The most frequently missed feature of the KCanG is that possession and consumption are governed by different sections with different logic. Holding a permitted amount says nothing about where it may be consumed.

§ 5 Abs. 1 KCanG prohibits the consumption of cannabis in the immediate presence of persons who have not completed their 18th year. § 5 Abs. 3 KCanG prohibits consumption in military areas of the Bundeswehr.

§ 5 Abs. 2 KCanG contains the public place restrictions. It covers schools and their sight range, playgrounds and their sight range, youth facilities and their sight range, publicly accessible sports facilities and their sight range, pedestrian zones between 7 and 20 hours, and the premises of Anbauvereinigungen and their sight range. The statute does not leave the sight range concept vague, and it is easy to state backwards. § 5 Abs. 2 Satz 2 KCanG provides that Sichtweite is no longer present at a distance of more than 100 metres from the entrance area. So the restriction bites within 100 metres and stops beyond it.

The pedestrian zone rule is the one that catches people out, because it is a time rule rather than a place rule in substance. The same square is treated differently at 18:00 and at 21:00.

Where the lines actually fall: the three band structure

The practical value of the KCanG lies in a structure that almost no summary reproduces. Between the permitted amount and the criminal threshold there is a deliberate buffer band which is an Ordnungswidrigkeit, punished by a Geldbuße rather than prosecuted as an offence.

The plant count works differently, and the difference is worth stating explicitly. § 9 Abs. 1 KCanG permits three living plants, and § 34 Abs. 1 KCanG treats more than three living plants as within its criminal provision. There is no intermediate Ordnungswidrigkeit band for plants comparable to the 25 to 30 gram band for dried material, so the plant limit is a harder edge than the weight limits are.

Penalties

§ 36 Abs. 1 KCanG lists the conduct that is an Ordnungswidrigkeit. Alongside the possession bands above it covers, among other things, cultivation in military areas, importing cannabis seeds contrary to § 4 KCanG, consumption contrary to § 5 KCanG, advertising and sponsoring for cannabis or Anbauvereinigungen, failures to secure cannabis against unauthorised access, failures to make required notifications, breaches of conditions imposed by the authority, membership of more than one Anbauvereinigung, and a series of duties specific to Anbauvereinigungen.

§ 36 Abs. 2 KCanG sets two levels of Geldbuße: up to 30.000 Euro for an enumerated set of cases, and up to 10.000 Euro for the remaining cases in Absatz 1. Those are statutory ceilings rather than tariffs, and the amount imposed in an individual case is set by the competent authority on the facts.

§ 34 Abs. 1 KCanG provides for a penalty of up to three years imprisonment or a fine. Nummer 1 covers possession beyond the figures above, Nummer 2 covers cultivating more than three cannabis plants at a time or cultivating otherwise than for own consumption, and Nummer 3 covers producing cannabis.

§ 34 Abs. 3 KCanG raises the range to between three months and five years in a besonders schwerer Fall, and names as such cases acting gewerbsmäßig, endangering the health of several people, a person over 21 passing cannabis to a child or young person, and conduct relating to a nicht geringe Menge. That last concept is the one that carries the most weight in practice and is developed by the courts rather than fixed as a number in the section itself.

A worked illustration of the bands

Take a single figure and run it through the structure rather than through a scenario. Forty grams of dried flower held outside the residence sits above the 25 gram permission in § 3 Abs. 1 KCanG, above the 30 gram Ordnungswidrigkeit ceiling in § 36 KCanG, and therefore inside § 34 Abs. 1 Nr. 1 KCanG, with a range of up to three years imprisonment or a fine.

The same forty grams held entirely at the residence sits below the 50 gram figure in § 3 Abs. 2 KCanG and is within the permission, provided the three plant limit is also respected and the combined cap is not exceeded. Same substance, same weight, different section, different outcome, because the statute attaches the figure to the location.

Now move the figure to 28 grams away from the residence. That is outside the permission but within the buffer, so § 36 KCanG applies and the consequence is a Geldbuße rather than a prosecution. The three grams between 28 and 31 are the difference between an administrative fine and a criminal provision, which is why the numbers in the KCanG repay being read exactly rather than approximately.

What is law and what is only proposed

The KCanG has been politically contested since it entered into force, and proposals to reverse it, to reduce the possession figures, or to abolish the Anbauvereinigungen have been made repeatedly and reported widely.

As at 20 July 2026 none of that has been enacted. The figures in §§ 3 and 9 KCanG, the consumption restrictions in § 5 KCanG and the penalty structure in §§ 34 and 36 KCanG are in force as set out above. A proposal, a coalition position paper or a Bundesrat initiative is not a statute, and English language coverage of German cannabis policy has repeatedly presented the three as interchangeable.

The corresponding point applies in the other direction. Cannabis was moved out of the Betäubungsmittelgesetz framework for the purposes covered by the KCanG, but the BtMG continues to exist and continues to govern other substances, so a source that speaks generally about German drug law is not necessarily describing the KCanG at all.

Three separate questions this page does not answer

First, the Land and municipal picture is a separate layer. The KCanG is federal, and Länder and municipalities have their own competences that can affect where consumption is possible in a given place, so a local rule is not inconsistent with the federal statute simply by being stricter in its own area of competence.

Second, the employment consequences are a separate question governed by employment law and by the employer's own rules, not by the KCanG. Nothing in the KCanG regulates what an employer may require, and the permission in § 3 KCanG is not addressed to the employment relationship.

Third, driving is governed by road traffic law with its own thresholds and its own procedure, which are unaffected by the possession permissions in the KCanG. That subject is set out separately at cannabis and driving in Germany, and the distinction is the single most important one for anyone reading the possession figures on this page.

For the other topics in this area see the German criminal law overview, the pages on knife law and gun licences, and the wider guide to German law at Germany.

Frequently asked questions