Cannabis News
Legal High: Switzerland to Lift Ban on Legal Cannabis
Legal high is a phrase you’d usually reserve for the myriad of dubious over-the-counter drugs that come and go from the market with regularity, but the Swiss government is working on plans to make cannabis a recreational drug, and ease restrictions on medical marijuana patients, Swiss news outlet Blick reported on Tuesday.
According to an amendment to the Swiss Narcotics Act that was approved by Parliament in March 2021, the Swiss government announced on June 22 that it will lift the ban on medical cannabis.
Agence France Presse reports that the government wants to make medical cannabis more accessible to patients.
“The decision to use a cannabis-based medicine for therapeutic purposes will rest with the doctor, in consultation with the patient,” the government said.
The Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) will no longer require patients
to obtain permission prior to receiving treatment from August 1. Sale and consumption of cannabis for adult use will remain illegal.
A doctor must approve the use of medical cannabis in Switzerland, or an approval from the FOPH was previously required.
There is still a limit of 1% THC allowed in medical cannabis, and the medicine must be licensed. Sativex is the only prescription drug that is currently approved for patients.
"Tedious administrative procedures"
Swissmedic, the country’s federal public law institution, is in charge of approving and supervising the country’s pharmaceutical industries, including cocaine, methadone, and morphine. It could eventually be given the responsibility of managing the cannabis industry.
A total of 3,000 authorizations were granted to cannabis patients suffering from various medical conditions in 2019.
This process was described as “tedious administrative procedures. Sick
people must be able to access these medicines without excessive bureaucracy,” by the Federal Office in Switzerland.
An upcoming trial of recreational cannabis dubbed “Zuri Can” was approved by the government in September 2021 and is expected to start this summer.
There was only one caveat, requiring that only individuals with experience
apply and that hair samples be tested, not urine or blood, to prove they were longtime users.
Basel, Switzerland, will host the trial program, and 400 people will be selected to buy recreational cannabis from specific pharmacies.
Legal high: A boost to the economy
Researchers found that about 56 tons of cannabis are consumed each year in Switzerland. Using these data, cannabis sales for adult use could
generate up to $582 million (CHF) annually.
Legal cannabis could also provide up to 4,400 full-time jobs, in comparison to the country’s Swiss accident insurance, which has about 4,200 employees.
Putting in place a regulated framework for cannabis legalization has many benefits, as seen in other countries, with others like Thailand and Ukraine trying to put similar legislation in place.
Study author and Research Associate at the Institute of Sociological Research of the University of Geneva, Dr. Oliver Hoff, explains that it’s time that Swiss cannabis laws received an update.
“The simulation shows, that the current form of regulation produces an
economically inefficient result,” Hoff said in a statement.
“While artificially high profit margins enable illegal actors to generate
generous profits, consumers suffer from inadequate transparency
regarding products and quality.”
She continued “The healthcare system and preventative measures have a hard time accessing consumers with problematic consumption patterns and the state lacks access regarding regulatory, fiscal and public-health
oriented initiatives.”
