If the topic weren't so serious, the statements made by the federal government's new drug commissioner about the availability of alcohol and tobacco could pass as the joke of the week.
There may be good medical arguments for raising the legal age for beer, wine or cigarettes to 18.
But first of all, it is not the case that a lot has not already happened in the field of youth protection under the previous governments.
And secondly, even more would be gained if the around-the-clock availability of these products, for example at gas stations, were limited to the general closing times.
If there's a much better medical argument for anything, it's for not legalizing cannabis.
However, the SPD man Blienert would not have to lend his ear to the pressure groups in the governing parties and the lobbyists of the stoner industry who are waiting in the wings, but would have to look around in the addiction help facilities and ask around in the youth psychiatric wards.
If the demand for treatment in the field of addiction has exploded in Germany, it is where cannabis is involved.
And it is child and adolescent psychiatrists who deal every day with the victims of a supposedly liberal policy in which it has long been considered good form to ridicule the risks of cannabis use.