Get drunk, not high, German officials tell Oktoberfest punters as they ban cannabis

https://i.redd.it/1foa2ce0e1vc1.png

by TheTelegraph

37 comments

  1. **From The Telegraph’s Berlin Correspondent, James Rothwell:**

    [Oktoberfest](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/germany/what-learnt-germans-first-post-pandemic-oktoberfest/) punters are welcome to drink as much beer as they like when they descend on Bavaria this year – but anyone hoping to enjoy a joint will be disappointed.

    On Tuesday, the southern German state announced that it will ban the consumption of marijuana in public spaces including beer gardens, amid fears Olaf Scholz’s [recent legalisation of the drug](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/03/31/german-jails-race-to-free-cannabis-offenders/) will plunge the festival into cannabis chaos.

    For two centuries, Oktoberfest has been a headline event on Germany’s social calendar, with [thousands filling up on the finest beers in the land](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/09/25/watch-oktoberfest-waitress-carries-13-steins-to-customers/) as servers totter around with up to six steins in each hand.

    But Clemens Baumgärtner, a politician from the conservative CSU party who is in charge of Oktoberfest planning, said that he wants to keep the festival weed-free.

    “Cannabis simply has no place at the Oktoberfest,” he told the[ ](http://web.de/)%5Bweb.de%5D(http://web.de) news portal. “A family celebration like the Oktoberfest and cannabis consumption don’t go together for me.”

    The new rules amount to a ban on taking cannabis in any form at Oktoberfest in an effort to ensure it remains a family-friendly event.

    Markus Söder, the Bavarian president, said that the new rules would strengthen “child protection and youth protection” by giving local municipalities the power to introduce cannabis bans in certain venues.

    “We will ban smoking weed in beer gardens and at festivals. In addition, municipalities will be able to ban smoking and vaping cannabis products in public areas, where many people regularly gather in a confined space, for example at tourist attractions, in outdoor swimming pools and amusement parks,” he said.

    **Continue reading ⬇️**

    [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/04/17/bavaria-bans-cannabis-at-oktoberfest/](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/04/17/bavaria-bans-cannabis-at-oktoberfest/)

  2. Makes sense. Getting shitfaced drunk, pissing yourself and falling over is family-friendly. Being happy high is not. What’s worse all studies show people when high consume less alcohol. Who would want that.

  3. expand your senses and relax = nope

    ruin your liver and talk shit to the women in dirndl = Jawohl!

  4. Alcohol is one of the most harmful drugs that exists, so if anything it would be better if people chose cannabis instead.

    The biggest problem with cannabis might be that it is smoked, which has many of the same negative effects as cigarettes.

  5. I‘m so glad to have responsible people select the right drug for me.

  6. “A family celebration like the Oktoberfest”? People are puking and pissing all over the place! CSU is such a clown party.

    I live in Munich and the Oktoberfest period fucking sucks, except the few days when I can actually join. Everything is expensive, everywhere is crowded and everyone is drunk.

  7. If a country told me to drink beer and not smoke weed. I’m ok with it being Germany. They have good beer. It’s like if India told people to eat chicken, not beef It’s almost expected.

  9. It’s not „German“ officials, it’s „Bavarian“ officials. There is a slight difference.

  12. “A family celebration like Oktoberfest”

    … excuse me?

  13. As a Dutchie, I can tell you that being high at a party or festival where everybody else is drunk, is not fun. It makes it all really surreal and weird and not in a fun way. Be drunk with the drunks. Be stoned with the stoners.

  14. It’s all about the money, as always.

    The Oktoberfest is bringing millions of euros of taxes to the government. If now the people only smoke weed and have a coke or two small beer, instead of drinking 3 litres per person, they are not even closely earning as much taxes as with the beer. Obvious, that the government want to see the money, it is fixed calculated in the financial plannings.

  15. Its such a family friendly event that the video to the Song “Oktoberfest” by KIZ which is showing nothing else but recordings of the oktoberfest isnt allowed on youtube because it infringes on the guidelines for child protection.

  16. “Don’t use weed! Instead, buy this highly marketable, infinitely worse for your health, conventional drug we’ve been profiting off of you since the beginning of time!”

    What an absolute clownfest.

  17. How do they expect to ban edibles or vaporizers that don’t leave much scent?

  18. Good luck with that. They couldn’t ban cannabis using even when it was illegal in Germany.

  19. Well yeah, they’re selling beer there, at horribly inflated prices. If everyone just pays the entrance fee, buys a water, and then spends the day getting high on their homegrown weed, there’s no more money to be made. They can’t legally sell you grass, so they ban it. I’d do the same if I owned a bar, simply because I can’t sell you the joint you’d be smoking. I’d have to charge a hospitality fee to smokers for that to work out for me.

  20. “I know I poison myself with this substance, that’s why I would never do that substance, I’m better than everyone else at this point”

  21. Smoking tobacco is already banned, so smoking cannabis will be banned, too. Yes, it’s that simple.

    This isn’t even newsworthy and yet for some godforsaken reason this is the third post I’ve seen about it.

  22. Oh sure, it’s ok for some German official to say that, but when I say that, it’s because I’m an alcoholic… I see how it is.

  24. Okay the reason here is simple. If people are allowed to smoke cannabis, the businesses make less money selling beer.

  25. It’s because its definitely safer to get drunk thank high … /s

  26. Texas among the German states. Bavaria once again pathetic. Everything for profit!

  29. Imagine they would suddenly sell less beer, Söder would get enrage 😂

  30. “A family celebration like Oktoberfest”
    Here’s my first impression from Oktoberfest, when I was there a few years ago with my brother and some friends.

    I saw a topless woman standing on a table, with a drunk guy pouring beer on her boobs, whereafter he promptly pukes and falls off the table, while puking.
    I then went to the bathroom, where a guy with a beer belly snorted coke off the sink, while two other people had loud sex in the toilet stall. This was within 30 mins. of arriving.

  32. Less weed equals more beer sales. It’s really about money, like everything else.

  35. Backwards. I know which one will cause greater expense to the public purse.

  36. Idk how much they smoked when they allowed smoking that in public. That is not okay whatsoever. I like cannabis and dont think it is much worse, or better, than alcohol. BUT there method of intake is increadibly important when allowing it publicly. There is no “passive drinking” but there certainly is for smoking. You have to be able to move freely in public space without any chance of inhaling cannabis. Just like you wont get drops of alcohol in your mouth here and there when you are going about.
    Public smoking not okay.
    Public eating pot cookies and whatnot, same as beers.
    Glad i am not german right now with this prototype of a law. Jeez. Use your brains.

  37. Yeah, because cannabis kills tens of thousands of people, and alcohol does not….

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