After announcing it would be reviewing regulations relating to cannabis cultivation, production, trade and consumption, Switzerland has announced it has approved a pilot in the City of Basel.
The Basel-Stadt health department received approval for a planned pilot project on cannabis from the Federal Office of Public Health and the Northwestern and Central Switzerland Ethics Committee.
Last year, Switzerland’s Social Security and Public Health Commission of the Council of States (CSSS-E) announced it would be lifting the ban on cannabis and reviewing regulations relating to cannabis cultivation, production, trade and consumption. In May 2021, the country made amendments to the Narcotics Act allowing scientific pilot trials with recreational cannabis.
The City of Basel project will be carried out with the University Psychiatric Clinics, the University of Basel and the Basel-Stadt Health Department.
Read more: Cannabis regulation changes across Switzerland and Luxembourg
Trialling legal sales
As part of the pilot programme, which will last two and a half years. 400 participants will be able to buy products such as dried flowers and hashish in selected Basel pharmacies.
Participants will be regularly asked about their cannabis consumption behaviour and their physical and mental health.
Participants will be recruited four weeks before the start of the trial and anyone over the age of 18 who is already consuming cannabis and residing in the canton of Basel-Stadt will be able to take part.
The products for the trial will be sourced from the Swiss supplier Pure Production in Zeiningen, which has had an exemption from the Federal Office of Public Health for research with THC cannabis since the beginning of 2020.
A move away from the black market
Stating that cannabis is the most consumed substance in the country, Switzerland has stated its black market for cannabis is thriving, meaning that the risk for consumers of acquiring cannabis that is harmful to their health is high.
The country is moving ahead with the trial in a bid to divert people away from the black market and move toward a regulated model of sales, and in 2021 the CSSS-E stated the plans were aimed at “regulating the cannabis market to better protect young people and consumers”.
To inform its pilot, a pilot study was carried out looking at the effects of regulated cannabis sales on consumption behaviour and the health of cannabis users.
Further Swiss cities and cantons are planning scientific pilot studies with cannabis, which the government has stated represent a unique opportunity to obtain scientific knowledge about different regulatory approaches in order to facilitate a basis for discussion about a responsible cannabis policy in Switzerland.
The CSSS-E also stated in 2021 CSSS-E that it is essential the National Council considers the results of the pilot trial, citing that “the international context must also be taken into account.”
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