700 Pot Plants Found Growing Near Busy Berlin Train Station

One might not think of Berlin, with its steel gray skies and long winters, as an ideal outdoor gardening town. But, when it came to growing pot, some Berliners seemed to prefer the open-air approach.

The discovery of 700 pot plants growing in and around Görlitzer Park, amidst the mini-golf course and petting zoos, is just one event in the ongoing struggle between authorities who want to control consumption and sale; and the rest of the pot-tolerant city that has either been toking up for years.

The pot plantation was in plain view to the thousands of people who daily pass through the hip Kreuzberg district, one of Berlin’s busiest intersections and a major subway station.

Berlin police said they were called to the Kreuzberg subway station by a street cleaner who’d reported seeing “numerous small plants that seemed suspicious to him,” according to an Associated Press report-+

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Police, who said the plants were about 15 inches tall, yanked them up and disposed of them.

Known for being among the most liberal cities in Europe, Berlin – and especially the district of Kreuzberg – is going through a complicated struggle over how to deal with the weed trade, explained an article in CityLab..

The prickly issue lies in Berlin’s ill-conceived compromise between legalization and criminal control. Berlin, whose legal powers are similar to a U.S. state, allows people to possess up to 15 grams of pot for personal use and has historically maintained a relaxed attitude toward public consumption. So… authorities allow consumption without legalizing the supply. Sound familiar?