Legal smoking in Zurich – CBD weed confuses the police

Hemp shops in the Limmat city are booming: Where you can buy legal weed and why users still have to expect to be prosecuted.

Hemp sales in Zurich are booming like they haven't since the '90s. Since August, more and more vendors have been popping up like mushrooms. Among them is Agi Petrova's shop. She and her boyfriend opened the hemp boutique Green Passion on Badenerstrasse in November. "Ever since '20 Minuten' reported about us, people have been flooding in."

Bankers, construction workers, students, or unemployed people—on a normal weekday, all kinds of folks visit the boutique. Curiosity seems huge. "Our oldest customer so far is 84," says Petrova. The retiree wanted to roll a joint—for the first time in her life. "Now that the stuff is legal."

Complicated checks

The shop owners Green Passion sell their hemp flowers as "raw material" and not as a tobacco substitute—which means no tax. "Our customers decide for themselves what they do with the weed," says Green-Passion owner Petrova. The company website even advises against inhaling consumption—this way, the sellers avoid responsibility.

Still, almost all customers interviewed by TA admit they use the flowers to roll joints. This puts the sellers in a legal gray area.
The situation is confusing for users too. Smoking a joint with less than one percent THC is allowed. But there's still a risk of getting fined.
Cops can't tell legal weed from illegal—smell and looks are identical. When the problem first showed up last August, the city police decided to stick with their usual fine procedures.

If you don't want to pay the fine, you can refuse. But that triggers a complicated investigation. The police send the confiscated weed to a lab for testing. If the THC content is under one percent, the user gets their cannabis back. The taxpayer covers the investigation costs, which can be several hundred francs. So far, there haven't been many cases like this. Since August, 18 analyses have been done, with one case resulting in a return. But if the police keep up their strict fining and more and more legal hemp is bought, it could get expensive for taxpayers.

THC versus CBD

THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) is what gives you the actual "high" when you smoke. THC is a cannabinoid. Cannabinoids are chemical compounds you won't find in any other drug. About 120 of these compounds are known today. THC is the most famous one.

In recent years, a second cannabinoid has come into focus: cannabidiol (CBD). Unlike THC, CBD isn't psychoactive.
Right now, a lot of producers are trying to breed their hemp to have as much CBD as possible. The higher the content, the stronger the effect.

In a Zurich suburb, T.B. grows legal hemp with a high CBD content. "Business is great, we sold everything before the harvest," he says. "About two years ago, I emailed the public prosecutor and told them I wanted to grow cannabis with less than one percent THC." The prosecutor totally freaked out. "She asked if I was messing with her and told me my plan was highly illegal," says T.B. That's when he realized law enforcement didn't really know the legal situation. He still didn't let it stop him.

Now, T.B. has a room with a total of 1,125 plants. "Breeding hemp with less than one percent THC and high CBD is a long process," T.B. explains. To get these plants, he crossed low-THC industrial hemp with high-quality illegal smoking hemp. "The plants should have as little THC as industrial hemp, but the taste and look of indoor plants." It took him a full two years to be happy with the result.

"Breeding is the only thing I could be prosecuted for," he says. Because for that, you need plants with higher THC content. He doesn't want to show me his production room. Recently, he was warned that someone wanted to steal his mother plant. "Right now, there aren't many producers, and everyone is trying to breed a better plant than the competition," says T.B.

Will the CBD bubble burst?

"The demand for CBD hemp will never be as big as for illegal hemp," says the producer and entrepreneur. It's hard to say how the market will develop. "At first, everyone is curious and wants to try it."

Right now, demand is high and supply is tight. "Everyone wants to get into the business now, but soon the price will drop," says T.B. In the end, only the big producers who offer high-quality products will survive, he thinks.

Just by looking, it's impossible to tell legal hemp from illegal. If you're checked by the police, they'll confiscate the legal hemp too.
Sellers and producers therefore distance themselves from any medical effects and ask customers to make their own experiences.

Source: tagesanzeiger.ch (12/22/2016)