I don't know what you mean about there not being dispensaries, but the article says: > Decriminalization is the first step. In the next step, specialist shops

I don't know what you mean about there not being dispensaries, but the article says: > Decriminalization is the first step. In the next step, specialist shops are able to sell cannabis and products containing THC — but only in selected districts and cities, which are to be named so-called model regions for a period of five years. So maybe this will be in a followup law. And about the security requirements, the law says: > geeignete Maßnahmen und Sicherheitsvorkehrungen (roughly: suitable measures and security measures) Which is more lenient than I thought. But very vague, such that there will definitely be a period of uncertainty and a few attempts at prosecution until there is sufficient case law to define what that means. Remember that famously the German supreme court decided it to be illegal to criminally prosecute the posession of "small" amounts of cannabis. Which is interpreted in totally different ways in different states, down to the extreme of Bavaria, where "small" means "undetectable or zero". So I fully expect the Bavarian police and state attorneys to try to prosecute everyone and their dog for having "unsuitable" measures, because the wording is too vague. Lauterbach started supporting legalization during coalition negotiations, at first citing some very strange arguments: https://www.fr.de/politik/karl-lauterbach-cannabis-drogen-legalisierung-gefahren-strassenhandel-politik-zr-91049471.html https://www.fr.de/politik/karl-lauterbach-cannabis-drogen-le... > illegal verkauften Straßencannabis neuartiges Heroin beigemischt, das sich rauchen lässt (roughly: illegally soled street cannabis is mixed with a new kind of heroin that can be smoked) Reading between the lines I find it clear that his change of heart was for political reasons and he just needed some factual-sounding argument, no matter how weird.