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Oktoberfest visitors (2018): beer-happy celebration

Photo: ANDREAS GEBERT/ REUTERS

Well over seven million visitors came to the Oktoberfest in Munich this year. The event is not only a tourist magnet, but also an important location and economic factor for the Bavarian capital.

Against this background, it is understandable that some Wiesn landlords reacted more than rudely to an interjection by the city's new second mayor, Dominik Krause: In an interview with the Instagram channel "Münchner Gesindel", he had claimed that the Oktoberfest was the "world's largest open drug scene".

"Here, seven million visitors are equated with drug users and discredited," the landlords now announced. Krause, who has been in office for less than two weeks, initially did not comment on the public rebuke.

The Green politician Krause had replied to the question of how he felt about cannabis legalization: "We live in the city with the world's largest open drug scene, namely the Oktoberfest, and that's why I think that if you have that in the city, then you have to be just as clear on the subject of legalization." From his point of view, both are perfectly okay and both should be done within an appropriate framework.

»Beer is not a drug«

So at the heart of the matter is the question of whether beer is a drug that can be equated with cannabis. Christian Schottenhamel, spokesman for the Oktoberfest hosts, has a clear opinion on this: "There is a world of difference between people smoking hashish and happily celebrating Oktoberfest visitors. Beer is not a drug," he said. The statement of the second mayor conveys "that large quantities of drugs are consumed at the Oktoberfest, that is wrong," said Schottenhamel.

There is another way of looking at it. According to the Oktoberfest balance sheet of the police, the number of crimes at the mass event has fallen slightly in 2023. However, a third of the offences were narcotics violations.

It was primarily about cannabis, there were considerably more deployments because of drug use, according to the police. Apparently, consumers were encouraged by the good weather to smoke hashish outside, said a spokesman. However, according to the data, there were also 368 deployments for cocaine use – an increase of 80 percent compared to the previous year.

At the request of the dpa news agency, Deputy Mayor Krause confirmed that he considers cannabis to be a drug, "but so is alcohol". His statement in the interview should not be taken so "seriously". I really like going to the Oktoberfest and wanted to point out that our Munich motto >Live and let live< should also apply to cannabis in my view.« In the case of cannabis, double standards have been applied in Germany so far, and in some cases they still are. "It's good that the Bundestag now wants to change that with legalization."

Krause was elected as the new second mayor of Munich almost two weeks ago. The new election had become necessary because the previous incumbent, Katrin Habenschaden (Greens), is taking over as head of the environment and sustainability department at Deutsche Bahn.

Even before Dominik Krause, Green politicians had described the Oktoberfest as the "largest open drug scene" – among them Claudia Roth, who later became Minister of State for Culture in 2009.

ala/dpa