Zurich’s municipal parliament has voted to extend its flagship adult-use cannabis pilot, Züri Can, by a further two years to October 2028, and to provide an additional CHF 800,000 in funding, in a 101-13 vote that laid bare the fault lines in Swiss cannabis politics.

After applying to extend the ‘Züri Can: Cannabis with Responsibility’ pilot last October, following what officials describe as encouraging early results in reducing illicit sales and improving public-health outcomes, the council held a vote on March 18, 2026. 

The supplementary credit brings the total cost of the programme, conducted by the Psychiatric University Clinic of the University of Zurich, to CHF 2.76 million, with the University of Zurich contributing a further CHF 156,000 toward extension costs. 

Unlike some of Switzerland’s other cannabis pilot programmes, which are funded through cantonal health departments or university research budgets, Züri Can is directly financed by the City of Zurich, meaning any additional expenditure above the original approved budget requires a formal vote of the Gemeinderat. 

While the vote was never in serious doubt and passed with an overwhelming majority, the lively debate that preceded it highlights some of the emerging tensions around cannabis liberalisation in even the most progressive states. 

The vote triggers a 30-day objection period before the extension is formally confirmed, with final approval also required from the cantonal ethics committee and the Federal Office of Public Health.

Is The City Of Zurich Becoming A Dealer?

As has become a common theme across Europe, the fiercest opposition came from those on the populist right. A representative from the Swiss People’s Party (SVP) immediately went on the attack, labelling the project as state-sponsored drug dealing. 

“What is being sold here as a scientific study is, in reality, a state-organised cannabis market,” he told the council. “Is the City of Zurich effectively becoming a dealer, with a logo, an administration, and our tax money?

“First, the project is sold with fine words, responsible, scientifically supervised, innovative. And then suddenly the money is no longer enough… The state cannot simultaneously warn about risks and sell cannabis without making itself look ridiculous.”

This stance was soon countered by Pascal Lamprecht of the Social Democratic Party (SP), who told the council: “Cannabis is not simply always and only harmless, we see it that way too… Drug policy should be based on facts, which means control and prevention.” 

Lamprecht then went on to suggest that, at the recommendation of operators, the study’s product range should be expanded to include edibles and vapes in order to deter consumers from returning to the black market. 

On this note, the Greens’ Yves Heinz suggested that the SVP’s position ‘effectively aims to push all consumers back to the illicit market, and thereby drive insecurity in our city and advance the promotion of organised crime. 

He continued: “Züri Can is the scientifically and politically constructive path toward an evidence-based drug policy where health protection is central.”

The sharpest exchange of the session came from Moritz Bögli of the socialist Alternative List, who pointed to the SVP’s contradictory position on tobacco. 

“Just today, the National Council again blocked measures to ratify the WHO tobacco agreement, with a unanimous SVP faction voting against. More than 9,000 people die from tobacco in Switzerland every year. And those deaths are accepted because of the money received from the tobacco lobby. To then stand here in this council and say we reject this because it is harmful to health, that is simply complete hypocrisy.”

In a pointed retort, Stefan Urech of the SVP said: “To suggest that we have connections to the mafia or are paid by some lobby with millions, just because we are against the state institutionalising cannabis consumption, that is simply laughable. I would say calm down a little and perhaps take some of the products from this new project down a bit.”

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What does the data show?

As of March 2026, 2,456 participants are enrolled in the study, approaching the expanded cap of 3,000 approved by the Federal Office of Public Health in November 2024, and the programme has now recorded approximately 106,000 legal sales, corresponding to around 902kg of cannabis sold through regulated channels.

Those figures represent a significant step up from those cited when the extension was first proposed in October 2025, when the trial had logged around 88,000 transactions and roughly 750kg in sales. 

Figure 2a: Gender distribution of current study participants in %. Source: University of Zurich

At that point, city officials estimated CHF 7.5m had been diverted from the black market; with transaction volumes up by around 20% since then, that figure is likely to have risen further, though an updated estimate has not yet been published.

City councillor Andreas Hauri, who heads Zurich’s Department of Health and Environment and has overseen the project since its inception, told the council during the debate: “We find that the majority of those currently participating are not consuming more, but less. 

“That is one of the most important findings. We find that participants are not in a worse situation mentally or physically, but rather a better one. And that conscious consumption can be significantly strengthened through this pilot.”

What’s coming in the next two years?

The programme operates across 21 distribution points spanning three sales models, ten pharmacies, nine cannabis social clubs, and the city’s Drug Information Centre, each testing different approaches to regulated access. The product range is also expanding from five products at launch to fourteen, covering a broad spread of THC and CBD profiles.

Gender and consumption patterns remain a priority focus for the extended phase. Men continue to account for the large majority of participants, reflecting wider patterns in Swiss cannabis use data, while frequent users are disproportionately represented. 

Around a quarter of participants showed signs of cannabis use disorder before joining, consistent with broader research on regular users, underscoring the programme’s public health rationale.

Marc Brüngger, Head of Innovation and Regulation at Pure AG, the foremost supplier of cannabis to the country’s pilot projects,  highlighted the near-unanimity of the vote, with opposition confined largely to SVP members, as a signal of broad political consensus.

On demographics, he described the female cannabis consumer as a major blind spot in the existing research base, and noted that the expansion of the product range would help maintain participant engagement over the extended study period.

For Hauri, the extension is as much about continuity as it is about data. “We expect that by 2027, or at the latest 2028, definitively regulated distribution can be introduced at the federal level,” he told the council.

 “We will certainly be there from the city’s side, ready to support and implement it. We want a cannabis policy that acknowledges reality and places health protection at the very top.”