BASEL/ZEININGEN A double mesh fence with barbed wire, surveillance cameras and motion detectors surrounds a small patch of field in a secret location in the Swiss countryside.
A growth tunnel covered with white plastic divides the field into two parts. At the end of September, the tunnel and its surroundings are full of cannabis plants in full bloom.
– This is Europe’s first legal hashish plantation, presenting a field Lino Cereghetti says while standing in the middle of the fists.
Cereghetti is the chief operating officer of the cannabis company Pure Holding.
Cannabis has been sold in Europe until now, but the substances have mainly been obtained from criminals. Now Switzerland is experimenting with how the legal production and distribution of intoxicating cannabis could work.
The purpose of regulated sales is to reduce the disadvantages associated with the illegal cannabis trade, such as the growth of organized crime and the entry of impure products into the market.
However, growing legally is not easy due to strict official regulations and quality control. Criminals, on the other hand, do not pay attention to the rules, so the cloud they produce can contain substances harmful to health.
In Switzerland, a dozen cities are planning to experiment with the legal sale of cannabis as part of scientific studies. Sales are scheduled to start in the spring and summer of 2023 at the latest.
The cities of Basel, Zurich and Bern have chosen Pure as a cannabis producer for their pilot projects.
According to Cereghetti, the hashish cultivation is in a secret place so that uninvited guests would not find it. He says that the field’s alarm system is connected to the police.
The authorities should arrive within a minute if someone tries to break through the fence. Nobody has reportedly tried to do that.
According to Cereghetti, this cultivation produces about 25 kilos of hashish. The product is to be sold in batches of five grams to subjects in the Basel study.
The cannabis field is protected by a fence, surveillance cameras and an alarm system.
Several different varieties grow in the field.
Its exact location is a secret for security reasons.
The unpleasant discovery postponed the start of the sale
So Basel was the first to get permission to start sales.
The goal of the two-and-a-half-year study called Weed Care is to find out how regulated sales affect the health of test subjects and the consumption of cannabis.
In Basel, sales were supposed to start already in September, but in connection with the quality control, a small amount of insecticide was found in the flower grown by Pure.
According to Swiss law, legal cannabis sold in connection with pilot studies must be organic and must not contain any pesticides.
The authorities decided that the sales trial must be postponed until a clean product is available.
Lino Cereghetti says that Pure grew cannabis using organic methods without pesticides. Still, residues of a plant protection agent, which is common in normal field farming in Switzerland, had ended up in the soil of the farm in question.
The cannabis plants absorbed the chemical residues, and they were only revealed in the finished product in the quality control laboratory.
According to him, the problem is that chemicals can end up in the product because the neighboring farmer sprays pesticides on his own fields.
Cereghetti says that the discovery of pesticides in the flower has started a discussion about what kind of permitted limit values for pesticides should be set for cannabis sold in connection with pilot studies.
He estimates that the limit values will be defined in such a way that cannabis growers will be able to comply with them.
Pure collects an extensive database of the hereditary properties of cannabis.
Timon Bruderer works in plant breeding. With the help of artificial intelligence and other cutting-edge technology, the company is able to accurately assign desired properties to plants.
Maximilian Vogt, the director responsible for breeding, says that they could easily develop a variety that would be successful in the Finnish field.
Pilots collect information for possible regulation
In Switzerland, cannabis is the most used illegal drug. Every third Swiss has tried it at least once in their life. According to THL, about 800,000 Finns have tried cannabis.
Basel has just under 200,000 inhabitants. Based on the authorities’ estimate, about 8,000–10,000 of them use cannabis.
– The illegal market is flourishing. We have no control over it, and we do not know the quality of cannabis products. That’s why we have to do something, says Regine Steinauer.
He works as the head of the addiction unit of the Cantonal Health Office in Basel-Stadt.
Some dealers sell it as regular intoxicating cannabis. This poses health risks, as the effects of synthetic cannabinoids developed in a laboratory are unpredictable and can even kill the user.
370 adult test subjects are selected for the Basel study, who can buy cannabis legally from nine different pharmacies. They must already be cannabis users.
Subjects are only allowed to use legal cannabis in private spaces. Reselling the substance is prohibited. The purpose is for the consumer to use the cannabis he bought at the pharmacy himself.
However, the culture of using the cloud often includes recycling kegs and pipes in the ring. Steinauer notes that sharing products is not attractive because subjects can only buy a limited amount of cannabis per month.
During the study, participants regularly answer online surveys so researchers can track changes in their health status and use.
– We hope that the investigation will lead to facts based on evidence. Based on them, we can discuss regulation in Switzerland, says Steinauer.
He emphasizes that Switzerland is not considering the full legalization of cannabis, but rather bringing the substance from the illegal market into the scope of regulation.
Legal production is difficult
In addition to Switzerland, an attempt has been made to start a pilot project in the Netherlands, where the legal production and sale of intoxicating cannabis is tested.
The experiment was supposed to start last year, but it has been repeatedly postponed due to production problems.
The cannabis companies selected as producers of the Dutch pilot have not been able to start sufficiently large-scale cultivation, and banks have refused to open accounts for some of them. of the DutchNews website (you will switch to another service) banks are concerned about money laundering and supporting criminal activity.
At the moment it looks like the Dutch pilot could start maybe in the second half of next year.
At this stage, most of the pilot projects in Switzerland are also on hold. We hope for decisions from the Federal Health Agency FOPH. Zurich, for example, is still awaiting approval for its pilot study.
Lino Cereghetti, who is standing on the hashish plantation, states that this field has been used for organic farming for decades.
– The soil and plants have been tested. The field is not contaminated, Cereghetti assures.
Towards the end of November, Cereghetti announces by phone that the authorities have approved the harvest from the field visited for sale. Among the approved products are flowers and hashish.
According to Cereghetti, the products cost around 8-12 euros per gram in pharmacies, depending on the product’s THC content. THC is the intoxicating ingredient in cannabis.
The Basel-Stadt Cantonal Health Office announced on December 8 that legal sales will begin on January 30, 2023.
You can discuss the topic until Monday 12.12. until 11 p.m.