The Economist Asia - 03.02.2018

The EconomistFebruary 3rd 2018 Europe 45

Drugs policy in Germany

Still not high

“T

HE pain wasn’t going away.” It was

2004. Two years earlier a car had
      missed a “stop” sign and hit Günter Wei-
      glein, throwing him off his motorbike,
      breaking many bones and leaving him
      full of medical screwsand plates. Pre-
      scription painkillers were proving in-
      effective, leaving him sweaty and sleep-
      less. Then, one evening, he smoked
      cannabiswith some friends. It was a
      revelation: “70% of the pain went, with-
      out side effects.” It became a routine and,
      after a close shave with the police, he
      sought the right to smoke legally. In 2014
      the government granted him an excep-
      tional licence to consume cannabis,
      which helped pave the way for the na-
      tionwide legalisation of medicinal can-
      nabis. It came into force last March.
      But almost a year on, sufferers like Mr
      Weiglein struggle to obtain the weed they
      need. One problem is the conservatism
      of the medical industry. Many doctors are
      reluctant to prescribe cannabis rather

than traditional opiates, like morphine.

Even when they do, at around €24 ($30)

per gram, more than double the street

price, the over-the-counter cost is more

than many people can afford privately.

Health insurers decline a third of requests

for reimbursement. Not all pharmacists

stock cannabis, either because they dis-

approve or because they are unfamiliar

with it. And demand far outstrips supply.

Yet Germans take new treatments seri-

ously (Apotheken Umschau, a health-and-

medicines monthly, is the country’s most

read magazine) and particularly like

natural remedies.

Growing cannabiswithin Germany

will remain illegal until next year, when

just ten licences will be issued allowing

production at secret sites by trained

pharmacists vetted for security, sworn to

confidentiality and (lest they be tempted

to sample for quality) prevented from

touching the finished product. Farmers

think these conditions impossible.

That leaves foreign-grown cannabis.

But here, too, “the licensing rules are far

too strict,” says David Henn, whose firm,

Cannamedical, is Germany’s largest

supplier. The blockages are evident even

in Cologne’s weed-friendly pharmacies:

“We’re on a waiting list. I think it will take

two months,” says Frau Metzdorf at the

Apotheke im Hauptbahnhof. At the

nearby Dom Apotheke, clients are told to

wait three months, though “those who

really want it can get it on the corner”.

Plenty do. Police in big cities some-

times turn a blind eye to street dealers

(possession of small quantities is legal).

Growing cannabis athome is riskier. In

November Mr Weiglein was sentenced to

two years’ probation for having 45 can-

nabis plants in his flat. The first licence for

home cultivation wasissued in 2016, but

he is urging that this, too, be fully legal-

ised. “That’s the next frontier,” he says.

COLOGNE

Though now legal, medicinal cannabis is hard to find

Need for weed: pot pursuit 2

R

USSIA’S elite had been on edge for

months. A new American law on sanc-

tions, passed last summer, required the ad-

ministration to draw up lists ofsenior offi-

cials and “oligarchs” close to Vladimir

Putin’s regime. Though inclusion on the

list would notautomatically lead to sanc-

tions, many feared that it would be tanta-

mount to a scarlet letter. Businessmen

hired lawyers and lobbyists to press their

case in Washington. Some considered

bringing capital back to Russia, fearing as-

set freezes and seizures.

Then early this week the list came out,

and sniggering ensued—on both sides of

the Atlantic. Just over 100 senior govern-

ment officials were named. Keen commen-

tators noted that the selection closely

matched publiclyavailable listson the

English-language version of the Kremlin

website. Konstantin Kosachev, the head of

the foreign-affairs committee of the upper

house of parliament, said that the adminis-

tration appeared to have “copied the Krem-

lin’s phone book”. Another 96 big busi-

nessmen were singled out; the entirety, in

fact, ofthe billionaireslist from the Russian

edition ofForbes. “My research assistant

could have done it in an hour—maybe

less,” tweeted Michael McFaul, a former

American ambassador to Russia.

The copy-paste approach produced an

eclectic and illogical list. Alongside well-

known cronies and old friends of Mr Putin

are fairly neutral executives, Russian citi-

zens who operate mostly abroad and mag-

nates who have clashed with the Kremlin.

As a result, the report is “so broad, so inclu-

sive and so non-discriminatory” that it un-

dercutsthe purpose of the bill, argues Dan-

iel Fried, the State Department’s former

co-ordinator for sanctions.

For Donald Trump’s administration,

that may have been the point. Mr Trump

reluctantly signed the bill, the Countering

America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions

Act (CAATSA), after it sailed through Con-

gress last year. “There’sa huge philosophi-

cal gap between where the president and

the bureaucracy stand on sanctions and

Russia policy writ large,” says Andrew

Weiss of the Carnegie Endowment for In-

ternational Peace. The so-called Kremlin

report followed an earlier announcement

that the government would not yet impose

sanctions on countries or companies do-

ing business with Russia’sdefence and in-

telligence sectors, another step mandated

byCAATSA. The Kremlin brushed off the

report’s potential impact. The rouble ral-

lied slightly and Russian borrowing costs

dipped when itwas published, suggesting

the markets saw little to worry about.

Nonetheless, the report may yet bite.

More detailed and damning information

may be included in a classified section.

Steve Mnuchin, the treasury secretary, said

further sanctions would follow from the

published list. Western businesses and

banks may be more reluctant to deal with

the Russians named. The Association of

European Businesses, a lobbying group in

Moscow, warned that the report “increases

the uncertainty in the Russian business en-

vironment” and could affect the interests

of European investors and firms operating

in Russia. RBC, a Russian business-news

agency, reckons that the 96 businessmen

on the list collectively lost$1.1bn because

of share-price movements on the day after

its release. Alexei Navalny, a Russian oppo-

sition leader who campaigns on an anti-

corruption message and days earlier had

led nationwide protests, cheered the re-

port, saying: “We’re glad thatthey’ve been

labelled crooks and thieves at the interna-

tional level.” 7

Sanctions on Russia

Copy and paste

MOSCOW

A token effort from the Trump

administration