ABSTRACT
The Swiss drug policy became famous for its pragmatic approach and innovative harm reduction measures (drug consumption rooms, heroin prescription). Cannabis reforms have also been on the agenda since the 1990s, but so far, significant changes have not occurred. A government proposal to remove the obligation to prosecute cannabis use and indirectly allow regulation of the cannabis market was turned down by Parliament in 2004, while voters rejected a ballot initiative for cannabis legalization in 2008. This led to a somewhat ambiguous policy model, combining relative tolerance at times and stronger repression at others.
The country has also witnessed the development and commercialization of legal low-THC/high-CBD cannabis products since 2015 and the recent rebirth of a Swiss cannabis industry. This is due to a unique threshold of 1 percent THC to differentiate legal and illegal cannabis.
Recent policy changes at the international level have also triggered different reform proposals at the local and national levels. The chapter reviews these reform attempts as well as the development of the new CBD cannabis industry. It also highlights the process that led the four authors of this piece, coming from the cannabis industry, academia and NGOs, to develop a proposal for regulating the Swiss cannabis market in the future.
