BGH ruling: Long overdue step for legal sale of commercial hemp products

Düsseldorf – The Federal Court of Justice has cleared the way for a penalty-free sale of commercial hemp products. Düsseldorf hemp entrepreneur and pioneer of the commercial hemp industry Daniel Kruse had to fight for this for 26 years:

“For me as an entrepreneur, this means that I am finally allowed to use and market hemp leaves for the production of traditional foodstuffs, such as tea preparations, without risking a prison sentence. The arbitrariness of the authorities and prosecutors in the past decades, especially in the past two years, has hereby hopefully come to an end.”

In its ruling of March 24, 2021, the BGH states that the sale of hemp flowers and leaves to end users is not fundamentally prohibited.

Incidentally, commercial hemp should be completely removed from the BtMG in order to reduce the unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles, explains Daniel Kruse, Managing Director of Hempro International GmbH and President of the European Industrial Hemp Association (EIHA):

“Industrial hemp has historically always played a major role as a raw material and food supplier in Germany. Not without reason, the Germania of 1848 by the artist Philipp Veit, on the occasion of the first German National Assembly – the democratic origin of our country, shows the branch of a hemp plant as a symbol of peace. Those who now, like some earlier historians, refer to this merely as an ‘olive branch’ would also overlook the fact that Germania’s victory wreath is appropriately made of oak leaves – from the ‘holiest’ German tree – and not laurel leaves. Hemp is an oil-fruit plant that grows in this country. Olive does not grow in our climate. Therefore, Veit deliberately chose a native plant as a symbol of peace.

I hereby personally thank the judges of the BGH for their correct, well-founded and soft decision!”

The ruling of the Federal Supreme Court is extremely important for the successful development of the hemp industry in Germany and Europe.

Press release of the Federal Supreme Court No. 066/2021 of 24.03.2021

Federal Supreme Court decides on criminal liability of the sale of hemp tea

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