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Hemp-prosecution 2021: Assessment, figures, graphics

Another repression year has been counted out. The numbers were also down in 2021. Is the repression machinery slowly losing its appetite for hemp prosecution? But beware: More than 20,000 people per year are still prosecuted for hemp!

Preliminary remark on the figures

The Swiss Federal Statistical Office (SFSO) has again changed tables and categories, especially the totals for the accused (which we have published so far) have changed in a way that is no longer comprehensible. Therefore, we now present here the criminal offenses. These figures are slightly higher than the number of accused.

Overview to the contraventions

After the lost hemp referendum in 2008, the number of arrests knew only one direction - upwards. Then, starting in 2013, the regulatory fines replaced a portion of the referrals, but the overall numbers remained fairly constant. Since the Federal Supreme Court clarified in 2017 that possession of what the law calls a “penalty-free minor quantity” cannot in fact be punished, repression has been on the decline. Meanwhile, the numbers have halved since the peak in 2015. That is pleasing, but over 20,000 convictions per year for smoking pot are still very shocking!

Overview to the misdemeanor

At misdemeanor, there are no such clear trends as at contraventions, mostly there were around 8,000 referrals per year. However, the year 2015 stands out: 3,233 hemp seed cases were reported as misdemeanor. In the meantime, this has leveled off (instead, the new category smuggling at contraventions is now filled with such cases). The last two years show a significant decrease in misdemeanor. Is this only due to the pandemic or is it really the beginning of the end of hemp repression?

Statistics 1974 until 2020

Here are more articles about statistics. There are two periods: The period up to 2008 and the period from 2009 onwards. The figures for the two periods are only comparable to a limited extent. The figures for the previous year are published at the end of March each year.

New counting method

Old counting method

Last modified: 2022/09/09 15:06

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