Basel is on the track to approve the ‘legal use’ of cannabis

Around 400 people in the city will be allowed to buy cannabis at selected pharmacies in Basel at the end of the summer.

It had been coming for a while, but the bullet is now definitely through the church. The first experiment in Switzerland in which weed will be for sale for recreational purposes will start this summer in Basel after approval by the Swiss health authorities last Tuesday.

Around 400 people in the city will be allowed to buy cannabis at selected pharmacies in Basel at the end of the summer. They will be regularly questioned about their usage patterns and physical and mental health.

The Swiss Federal Office of Public Health said the idea behind it was to increase understanding of “alternative regulatory forms” or regulate the sale of cannabis in pharmacies because so many people were already consuming it. The aim of the experiment is to test whether cannabis use changes when it can be legally purchased. Only people who consume cannabis and are over 18 years old are allowed to participate in the project, according to the local government.

The project, which involves authorities and researchers from the local government, the University of Basel and the University Psychiatric Clinics, Basel, will last two and a half years.

Health authorities have warned that people participating in the project will be punished if they pass cannabis on to other people.
Switzerland moves towards full legalization of cannabis

In September last year, the federal government announced that it wants to relax the rules on medicinal cannabis and lift the ban. Even better news came in October last year, when the Social Security and Health Committee of the Council of States ordered that Switzerland should legalize cannabis. Earlier, the Public Health Commission of the National Council in Switzerland already agreed. The government must now make a bill.