“Drugs are good for escaping reality, but reality is so rich — why would you want to escape it?”
Geraldine Chaplin
We have touched on the painful subject of drug use and drug dealing in Germany several times in our articles, yet it is, sadly, a topic that can never be fully exhausted. The grim statistics show that drug addiction remains a pressing issue in Germany to this day, and people from the former Soviet Union play no small part in both the consumption and the distribution of this dangerous poison. Drugs have unfortunately become a fixture of modern life. Berlin in particular is regarded as an extremely lucrative market for narcotics. 139,000 of the capital's residents — almost 4 percent(!) — regularly use some kind of “substance.” Last year alone, 168 people in the city died as a result, according to the Berliner Morgenpost.
Smoking hashish or marijuana is known in German slang as “Kiffen.” In Germany, using these two drugs is not prohibited as such, since under the Narcotics Act (Betäubungsmittelgesetz, BtMG) consumption itself is not a criminal offense and carries no penalty. The amount of marijuana tolerated varies from city to city — usually 15 g in Berlin and 3 to 5 g elsewhere. Medical marijuana was legalized in 2017 for people with serious illnesses. Dealing drugs to pay for one's own habit is common practice among addicts and is treated as a serious crime in every member state of the European Union. In some countries, the seller's own addiction is considered a mitigating factor, and other aspects may also be taken into account, such as the type and quantity of the drug sold or distributed, as well as repeat offending, which counts as an aggravating factor under the law of European countries. Overall, selling narcotics is a criminal offense, although the final sentence depends heavily on how the court assesses the circumstances of the individual case.
It is worth remembering, then, that the possession, cultivation (with certain exceptions), manufacture, import and export, distribution, sale, supply and any other acquisition of illegal narcotics are prohibited by law. § 29 BtMG sets out a catalogue of penalties for offenders. Depending on the seriousness of the offense, the penalty can range from a fine (Geldstrafe) to imprisonment of up to 5 years. In our firm's practice, we encounter all kinds of difficult cases. In line with the principles of professional legal ethics, we hold that a client who comes to us, even if he or she is in fact guilty of an administrative or criminal offense, must bear the responsibility provided for by law — but without any violation of their statutory rights and legitimate interests. If, on the other hand, the accused is not guilty, the lawyer's task is to gather and present the evidence that clears them. In this article, we would like to tell you about a case from our practice in which we managed to spare a young woman from criminal liability she did not deserve.
The father of a 20-year-old young woman — let's call her Katerina — came to our firm for a consultation. When he contacted us, he was deeply dejected and distressed, and with good reason. Katerina had been accused of illegally transporting and distributing drugs, an offense for which she faced many years in prison. After a short conversation with the client, the lawyer realized that the young woman had grown up in a close-knit and fairly well-off family whose parents had tried to give her everything she needed for a good start in life — but unfortunately, at some point the situation had spiraled out of control.
The Client's Story: An Affair With an Older Man and a Tempting Trip to Amsterdam
In her second year at university, the young woman met a young man — let's call him Dmitri. He no longer lived with his parents, had his own car, earned good money and loved to live life to the fullest. Katerina's new boyfriend seemed incredibly grown-up and attractive to her, and the two were soon in a passionate relationship. Dmitri often took his new girlfriend along to all sorts of get-togethers with friends, to trendy restaurants and bars, and to nightclubs. The young woman saw that these friends, and her lover too, frequently “had fun” with soft and not-so-soft drugs, but she did not attach much importance to it, convinced that everything was always “under control.” She herself had tried marijuana several times in her boyfriend's company, even though she sensed that this lifestyle would sooner or later end badly. So when Dmitri suggested spending the weekend in Amsterdam to relax and have a good time, she suspected nothing. After telling her parents she would be away for three days, she packed her things and, in the best of spirits, got into her boyfriend's car to set off on their first trip together.
It must be said that the trip was carefree and fun: in two days the young couple managed to stroll around the city and visit many well-known bars and nightclubs. Katerina noticed that her boyfriend kept stepping away, talking to someone and making phone calls, but the “rose-tinted glasses” of a young woman in love considerably dulled her attention and caution.
The Police Stop and the Discovery of Cocaine
Like all good things, the weekend ended sooner than they would have liked, and the following night the young couple got into Dmitri's car to drive home. This sad story might have ended well had the young man behind the wheel behaved differently. First, he raced along the Autobahn, ignoring speed limits and other traffic signs. Second, the music in the car was so loud that the couple only noticed with a considerable delay that a police patrol was following them. The driver was clearly signaled to stop, which, after a while, he did. After checking their papers and searching the vehicle, the officers found that our client's boyfriend was carrying drugs — a substantial quantity of cocaine. Naturally, the car was seized, the drugs were confiscated, and the young man and the young woman were taken into custody (Untersuchungshaft — pre-trial detention). Deeply shaken by what had happened, Katerina's father turned to us in the hope of legal assistance and support in his daughter's case.
The Lawyer's Work: Proving She Was Not Involved
The lawyer of our firm got to work. He gathered evidence and prepared an application to discontinue the criminal proceedings against our client (Einstellung des Verfahrens) under § 170 of the German Code of Criminal Procedure (Strafprozessordnung, StPO) for lack of sufficient suspicion (mangels hinreichenden Tatverdachts). The application set out the following arguments:
- Katerina had not personally used, transported or distributed drugs, as shown by the relevant medical records and by the absence of any contact with drug dealers or drug users;
- the young woman did not know that her companion had bought drugs in the Netherlands and was transporting them to Germany by car. Moreover, she had never once witnessed her boyfriend using cocaine;
- our client had never committed any offense in the past and sincerely regretted having been drawn into such an unpleasant affair by mere chance.
To Dmitri's credit, during the investigation (Ermittlungsverfahren) he took full responsibility and confirmed that Katerina had played no part in either buying or transporting the narcotics. This fact was also documented in the application prepared by our lawyer.
The Outcome: Proceedings Dropped, Addiction Treatment
To our shared delight, we soon received the good news that the criminal proceedings against Katerina had been discontinued and that she could be released unharmed. Dmitri, for his part, was referred for treatment of his drug addiction. In this case, then, the lawyer's timely intervention helped to save the situation in time. All that remained for us was to wish the young woman and her parents every success in all their future endeavors.
Conclusion
As we know, drug addiction does not choose its families by wealth or nationality. Anyone can fall into the drug trap — it is neither a genetic disease nor an innate predisposition. We sincerely hope that our readers will never face such problems. But if this misfortune has unexpectedly entered your family and you need legal help, we invite you to a consultation at our firm, where we will work with you to find the best way forward, even in the most difficult and complicated situation.
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