Swiss Lawmakers Approve Plan To Legalize And Regulate Marijuana

A legislative committee in Switzerland has given preliminary approval to a plan that would legalize and regulate adult access to marijuana in the country. The proposal would bar for-profit sales, however, and impose a tax on cannabis products.

The draft legislation was approved on a 14–9 vote on Friday by the Social Security and Health Committee of the National Council, which is a chamber of the Swiss parliament.

“Today, the cultivation, production, trade and consumption of cannabis for non-medical purposes are prohibited,” the panel said, according to a translated press release. “The majority of the Commission considers the current situation to be unsatisfactory and the prohibitive approach to be flawed. In their view, strictly regulated access to cannabis with a controlled market allows better protection of public health, strengthening youth protection and increasing safety.”

“In this way, consumers could be reached more effectively with prevention messages and directed towards less harmful forms of consumption,” the release continued. “The population could be better protected from the negative effects of cannabis use and adolescents could be kept from it. The illegal market is to be contained.”

While the committee said marijuana should still be considered a narcotic that’s harmful to human health, it proposed a series of changes to national law that would allow adults to grow, buy, possess and consume cannabis.

CSSS-N: Réglementation globale du cannabis https://t.co/FeyrBVoSyN

— Parl CH (@ParlCH) February 14, 2025

The proposal would allow adults to grow up to three flowering cannabis plants for personal use.

While the plan would also allow for-profit commercial cultivation by government-licensed growers and manufacturers, retail sales would be subject to a state monopoly, with any profits “invested in the prevention, reduction of damage and addiction help,” the commission release says.

Sales to minors would be prohibited, and products would need to be “packaged neutral, without brand elements, with warnings and package inserts and child-proof.” Retailers would also offer non-smokable alternatives and low-THC products in an effort to reduce risks associated with consumption.

Advertising cannabis products, seeds, plant cuttings and paraphernalia would also be banned under the proposal.

Zero-tolerance driving laws would remain in place, and illicit cannabis activity would be “punished more severely compared to today,” the release says.

Approval by the committee is an early stage in the legislative process. “The next step is an explanatory report on the preliminary draft so that the commission can examine these documents in the summer,” the commission noted. Interested parties will also be given an opportunity to provide comment at that point.

Switzerland dipped a toe into cannabis legalization in 2023, launching a regulated sales pilot program open to a limited number of participants in a handful of locations. In Zurich, for example, the program was open to a test group of 2,100 residents, who were permitted to buy marijuana from pharmacies and social clubs.

As part of the pilot, participants answered questions about how they consumed the products and their health effects, part of a study with the University of Zurich. The so-called “Grashaus Project” study was also set to be undertaken in Basel-Landschaft, open to nearly 4,000 participants.

In April of last year, meanwhile, a separate study launched in the city of Bern. More than 1,000 people from Bern, Biel/Bienne and Lucerne were expected to enroll in that program; as of last spring, the vast majority of applicants—nearly 80 percent—were men. Products available from five pharmacies in Bern included four varieties of cured flower, two concentrates, two tinctures and two e-liquids meant for vaporization.

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Photo courtesy of Mike Latimer.