As the first pilot projects begin in Zurich and Basel allowing the sale of cannabis for recreational use, Clare O’Dea welcomes this most recent step towards full legalisation. Buying cannabis from a Swiss pharmacy is preferable to getting friendly with your local dealer, she writes.
The Swiss Basel-Country region said Thursday it would launch a pilot trial next month for the legal sale of cannabis, marking a first step in Switzerland towards possible legalisation.
Binge drinking is on the rise across the country - particularly amongst women - while the use of cocaine and ecstasy in Swiss cities is among the highest in Europe.
Switzerland’s National Council has approved a plan to start cannabis trials for recreational use. If it is to be legalised however, the government says it must be organic and grown locally.
A top Swiss health commission said on Tuesday that the country's drug laws should be changed to decriminalize cannabis use and regulate the market for the substance in Switzerland.
The Swiss government on Thursday came out in support of scientific trials into the impact of cannabis use on public health and safety as the country looks at how to regulate the drug's use in future.
While the rest of the world discusses the merits of medicinal cannabis, a group of researchers in Switzerland believe a substance found in some liverworts could provide a better alternative.
A medical cannabis producer in Saint Gallen has suffered 1.3 million francs in losses after unknown perpetrators pulled out 4,000 of his plants from his plantation but didn’t steal them.
A plan by the University of Bern to study the effects of allowing the sale of cannabis in pharmacies has been vetoed by the Swiss federal health office (BAG), which says such a project would be against the law.
An independent Swiss cigarette maker has this month launched what it calls the first hemp cigarette in the world – and from July 24th they will be on sale in major Swiss supermarket Coop.
The Swiss public could have another chance to decide if cannabis consumption should be legalized after the group Legalize It launched a popular initiative to that effect last week.
A grey-haired woman in her early 60s
daintily lifts small trays topped with different varieties of marijuana to her
nose, sniffing each of them carefully.
People who need cannabis for medical reasons should be issued with a special identity card to help them obtain the drug more easily, say authorities in the canton of Zurich.
Some farmers in Switzerland would jump at the chance to grow cannabis should the drug be legalized in Switzerland, the Schweiz am Sonntag newspaper has reported.
Cannabis could go on sale in selected pharmacies in the Swiss capital after the city authorities gave the green light to a pilot project by Bern University.
