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HEALTH

Switzerland tries slow-mo cannabis revolution

Switzerland, which pioneered prescription heroin and safe injection sites decades ago, is now experimenting with decriminalising recreational cannabis, with the drug now available in some Basel pharmacies.

This picture taken on March 7th, 2023 shows the ID card used by buyers during a two-year pilot for the legal sale of recreational cannabis in Basel. - Switzerland
This picture taken on March 7th, 2023 shows the ID card used by buyers during a two-year pilot for the legal sale of recreational cannabis in Basel, Switzerland. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)

“This is 1,000 times better,” said Paul, a 42-year-old resident of the northern Swiss city, as he picked up a package of cannabis from his local pharmacy.

After buying his drug of choice on the street from “weird people or criminals” for the past 25 years, Paul, who asked that his last name not be published, is taking part in a pilot programme allowing him to acquire it over the counter.

“People are happy, since they for the first time can buy it legally,” pharmacist Lucas Meister told AFP, showing off a stash of colourful packages containing various dried cannabis flowers and hashish-based products.

His is one of nine pharmacies that have been chosen to take part in the two-year pilot for the legal sale of recreational cannabis.

Thousands of people applied to take part in the trial, but Paul, who mainly uses the drug to treat his depression, was among just 400 chosen.

Not encouraging consumption

Cannabis is legal for medical use in the wealthy Alpine nation, but only in extreme cases, such as pain relief for cancer patients.

Low-potency cannabis can also be purchased legally for non-medical use, but only when it contains below one percent tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) – the
component that gets recreational users high.

And while more potent cannabis is illegal, carrying up to 10 grammes of more potent cannabis for one’s own consumption is not punishable by law.

But while there are already a few ways to consume the drug without risking run-ins with police, pressure has been mounting for legalisation.

Paul smokes at home cannabis with a vaporizer during a two-year pilot for the legal sale of recreational cannabis in Basel, on March 7th, 2023.

Paul smokes at home cannabis with a vaporizer during a two-year pilot for the legal sale of recreational cannabis in Basel, on March 7th, 2023. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)

In 2021, around 70 percent of the population favoured liberalising the laws, up from 58 percent three years earlier, according to the Swiss health ministry.

“We have to get out of the illicit cannabis framework, but ensure strict regulation,” said Barbara Broers, vice president of a federal commission on issues surrounding addiction.

“It is important that people have access to controlled and regulated products, but we are proposing to ban advertising and to have plain packaging, as with cigarettes in some countries,” she told AFP.

“This is not about encouraging consumption.”

Small steps

The Swiss government has opted for a small-steps approach, and authorised trials to take place over the coming decade.

In Basel, participants are aged 18 to 76, and the aim is to study “the effects of regulated cannabis sale… on mental health and on consumption behaviour,” Marc Walter, a psychiatry professor at the University of Basel and head of the study, told AFP.

So far, participants have been especially drawn to “products with a very high level of THC,” he said.

The five-gramme packs that Meister keeps in his pharmacy safe contain products with THC levels ranging from 4.5 to 20 percent.

They are priced at between eight and 12 Swiss francs ($8.70-$13) per gramme, depending on the THC level, in line with black market pricing.

The pricing level was very deliberate, according to Marc Brungger, an executive at the Swiss company Pure Production, which is producing cannabis
for the Basel trial.

“If prices are too low, people would try to resell the product, and if they are too high, they would turn to the black market,” he told AFP.

Other major Swiss cities, including Zurich, Geneva and Lausanne, are planning to launch similar trials.

‘Pure and organic’

In Basel, Paul said he is thrilled to leave street dealers behind and to finally know with certainty what he is getting: “Pure and organic cannabis”, grown in Switzerland and quality-guaranteed by the Swiss authorities.

“I want to consume cannabis, not chemicals made in China,” he told AFP, voicing horror at the arrival on the street of synthetic cannabinoids – laboratory-made molecules that mimic the THC effect.

The marketing specialist said it was a shame Switzerland had not taken a more direct route to legalisation, as in some US states, Canada and Uruguay.

But Walter said he was happy “Switzerland has chosen another route”.

“As a scientist, I prefer that.”

Frank Zobel, head of Addiction Switzerland, agreed, pointing out that taking things slow and steady to see how the population responds was a very Swiss approach.

That model proved itself in the 1990s, he said, noting how Switzerland had slowly introduced prescribing heroin for medical use.

“There too, there were four years of pilot trials, and today it is a treatment that is covered by medical insurance,” he said.

By Agnès PEDRERO

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DRUGS

Swiss city of Bern wants to test controlled sale of cocaine

The Swiss capital Bern has voted in favour of a scientific pilot trial for controlled cocaine sales.

Swiss city of Bern wants to test controlled sale of cocaine

With 43 votes to 18, the Bern city council approved a motion by the Alternative Left (AL) on Thursday which seeks to start a scientific pilot trial of controlled cocaine sales, the Berner Zeitung reports.

The capital’s vote is meant to signal its interest in a pilot project to other Swiss cities and the Federal Council. However, for the sale of cocaine to be legalised the bill would need to be passed at the federal level, by the government.

Though cocaine is by no means a harmless drug, the regulated sale of the drug could lead to simplified prevention and better means of control as drugs will be consumed whether they are banned or not, Bern politicians found.

The Swiss People’s Party, the FDP.The Liberals, and the Evangelical Party, alongside some members of the Social Democratic Party all voted against the motion.

Opponents argued that an issue as serious as the supervised sale of cocaine should be completely left to the federal government, and not the city.

However, Bern’s Director of Education, Social Affairs and Sport, Franziska Teuscher called attention to the fact that the federal government only made the cannabis pilot project possible under pressure from the cities.

READ MORE: Swiss region to test legalising cannabis

The Bern city council narrowly rejected a near identical cocaine sale proposal, also by the AL, in May 2019.

The decisive factor at the time was the ‘no’ votes by the SP majority whose politicians found that a controlled cannabis sales trial should precede supervised cocaine sales.

After cannabis, cocaine is the most commonly used illegal drug in Switzerland. In 2017, 7 percent of people between the ages of 15 and 49 said they had used cocaine at least once in their life.

Cannabis pilot projects have since started in Basel, Zurich, and Lausanne. The city of Bern is expected to follow in autumn 2023, and Biel a few months later.

READ MORE: Why Basel is about to become Switzerland’s marijuana capital

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