NIMBY Mapping

In July the German government introduced a draft bill to legalize cannabis for personal use. However, under the draft bill, the consumption of cannabis will remain prohibited within a 200-meter radius of schools, children's and youth facilities, playgrounds, publicly accessible sports facilities, and in pedestrian zones between 7 am and 8 pm.

According to the Berliner Morgenpost these restrictions mean that even if the law passes it will still "be generally difficult to legally light up a joint in Germany's city centers". To illustrate this point the newspaper has published an interactive map Weed Prohibition Zones which shows all the areas in Germany which fall within one of the proposed prohibited areas. 

The map effectively draws 200 meter circles around schools and other prohibited areas to show where smoking cannabis will still be illegal. The map reveals that if you live in a rural area then you probably won't need to travel very far (if at all) to find a legal place to smoke cannabis. However if you live in a large city (such as Berlin) then you may find it very difficult to find a nearby location which is not in one of the prohibited areas.

The Berliner Morgenpost map reminds me a lot of Dan Cookson's interactive map London Schools 400m Exclusion Zones. In 2017 the London mayor introduced plans to introduce 400 meter fast food exclusion zones around schools. The purpose of these exclusion zones were to help fight the rise of child obesity.

Dan Cookson created an interactive map which revealed that this would make it very difficult in the future to open a fast food location in large areas of central London. The Berliner Morgenpost's map improves on Dan's map via the simple process of merging all the overlapping polygons. The result is a much clearer differentiation in the newspaper's map between the prohibition and legal zones.