Cannabis pilot projects: Now it's getting concrete

The project in Basel-Stadt was approved as the first pilot project by the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) in April 2022. Under the project, 400 selected people are expected to be able to legally buy hash and weed in nine pharmacies starting in the fall.

The company Pure Holding from Aargau was chosen as the supplier for the cannabis. This company has been researching THC-containing hemp plants with a special permit from the FOPH since 2019 - until now, however, it has had to destroy several hundred kilos of THC-containing cannabis every year. This is now changing: Approx. 100 kg of THC-containing hemp flowers and resin will be delivered to Basel pharmacies over the entire duration of the project.

By the way, the model of a Cannabis Social Club does not exist in Basel-Stadt, but will probably only be implemented in Zurich for the time being. For this, we are grateful to those responsible in the city of Zurich, who have tirelessly campaigned for Cannabis Social Clubs. We see this variant as one of the models that everyone could get along with: Consumers, politics, authorities and addiction associations.

In mid-July, the city of Zurich invited us to an aperitif attended by about 20 contributors to the Züri-Can project. There we were told that first unofficial feedback from the FOPH was positive.

However, there are still some challenges. For example, the producers need the okay for cultivation in time, which hopefully can be granted separately from the project approval. The pharmacies and social clubs may also need to provide additional information. So it can quickly become concrete, which means for us that the highest priority is now the search for space!

More info and the current development you can find on:

• hanflegal.ch/pilot-tests

The studies are, after all, limited to certain communities: our Social Club, for example, to the city of Zurich. But there will be more projects in other areas. Anyone interested in participating can find all the studies we know about on our map:

• hanflegal.ch/map