Geneva also wants to test the sale of cannabis

After Lausanne, Basel, Bern, Biel, or even Zurich, Geneva also wants to test the legal sale of cannabis for adults as part of a pilot project.

The application for authorization will be submitted shortly by the ChanGE association to the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH). It aims to authorize 1,000 adult cannabis consumers to join the experiment for a period of three years.

The municipality of Vernier, which is part of the canton of Geneva, will host the cannabis shop, with no further details for now other than that it should be located in the city center, and therefore a few kilometers from the French border.

The University Hospitals of Geneva (HUG) and the University of Geneva (Unige) will follow this experiment to study its repercussions on the local black market, consumption habits, and the mental and physical health of consumers.

«Faced with a repressive system that has proven ineffective and a well-established black market, we must explore new solutions, such as transitioning to a legal and regulated market,» explained Mauro Poggia, head of the Department of Health and Safety. According to the Geneva State Councilor, picked up by 20minutes.ch, this project will also allow for «better calibration of addiction prevention and youth protection measures».

However, the FOPH will have to give its approval to open the pilot project. In Lausanne, a file was submitted last June and «is being analyzed» according to the city. The sales location could therefore open sometime in 2023. More than 1500 people have registered for the Lausanne trial.

Swiss pilot projects allow a predetermined number of Swiss adults and consumers, and limited to 5,000 per pilot trial, to purchase up to 10 grams of pure THC per month, with a maximum of 20% of THC (equivalent to 50 grams of flower).

In parallel, the’Parliamentary interest in federal cannabis legalization is beginning to emerge.