Karl Lauterbach and Sido: Will they soon be unlikely cannabis homies?

The Bundestag passed the law for the controlled legalization of cannabis. If everything goes as planned, limited possession and cultivation of the drug for adults aged 18 and over should be permitted from April 1st of this year. Two fervent supporters of this decision, whose experiences with smoking weed – as well as their basic life plans – could hardly be more different, are SPD politician Karl Lauterbach (61) and rapper Sido (43).

One acronym stands for Social Democratic Party of Germany, the other for super-intelligent drug victim. One is a health minister and doctor, the other is a long-time cannabis consumer and businessman: Sido co-founded a start-up and hopes for good sales of medical cannabis in the future. In an interview with , the unlikely duo stated on which points they agree regarding weed consumption – and on which points their views contradict each other.

Once and never again?

The Minister of Health immediately puts a stop to the entertaining idea that Sido and Lauterbach would share a joint to celebrate the day on April 1st: “I can rule that out,” Lauterbach leaves no room for speculation. However, Paul Würdig, as the musician’s real name is, wouldn’t fail: “I would like to do one with Karl Lauterbach.”

Lauterbach’s first joint was also his last, as he asserted in the interview. He promptly “got an idea why some people fall for this drug. However, I was already an adult and was aware of the danger, so I left it at one try.” Sido, on the other hand, was only 13 when he first tried cannabis and “didn’t notice anything the first time.”

Different parenting approaches

The educational discussions with the respective children were apparently very different. “I just caught my eldest son,” Sido remembers. Instead of a vehement ban, however, he tried a different approach: “If someone like me, who smokes weed himself, says, ‘Boy, that stuff you’re smoking is way too good,’ then it gets across. That worked .”

Karl Lauterbach apparently didn’t catch any of his children red-handed smoking weed. In return, the offspring were spared a lot: “Simply put, my children had no problem. I didn’t even have to give my dreaded epidemiological keynote presentations.”

Why are they even doing this together?

No matter how different your personal experiences with cannabis may be, according to Lauterbach, it makes sense to want to push forward the change with Sido. In the course of the law, they wanted to “convey the same thing: cannabis will soon be legal, but it will still do harm.” And in the best case scenario, dealers will soon be unemployed: “Why should I do business illegally with a suspicious dealer about adulterated goods when there is a safe alternative?”