It is hosting the next dressage World Cup, the faces of bankers grace advertisements at tram stops and commuters are encouraged to make donations to help protect artisanal alpine beekeeping.
asserted
commuters → host → beekeeping
The city is perhaps an unlikely place to legalise recreational cannabis.
asserted
city → legalise → cannabis
But it has been sold legally here in a dozen high street pharmacies and a dispensary — and across Switzerland’s biggest cities — for the past three years as part of a legalisation pilot project.
asserted
it → sell → project
The nationwide effort to study different models of regulation is not premised on cannabis being entirely harmless.
asserted
cannabis → study → regulation
Rather, it asks whether those harms are better managed by the state than left to an illegal market.
asserted
harms → ask → market
In London, however, the authorities still spend vast sums policing a lucrative cannabis market that remains in criminal hands.
asserted
that → spend → hands
Across the capital, almost one in 10 adults are cannabis consumers, the highest proportion of any British region, and polling has shown two-thirds of Londoners favour either legalising or decriminalising cannabis.
asserted
thirds → show → cannabis
Last year, an independent London Drugs Commission report commissioned by the mayor, Lord Sadiq Khan, concluded that the “continuation of the law as it currently stands cannot be justified”.
asserted
it → commission → law
The commission recommended the partial decriminalisation of cannabis and noted that prohibition “does little to prevent access to the drug”.
asserted
prohibition → recommend → drug
Cannabis policing also falls disproportionately on black communities, it warned, creating a “pervasive sense of persecution” with “damaging, long-lasting consequences”.
asserted
it → fall → consequences
Yet despite pro-reform Khan posing between rows of cannabis plants at a factory in Los Angeles in 2022, the commission stopped short of recommending legalisation.
asserted
commission → pose → legalisation
The “extent of harms, particularly with respect to public health, as well as personal and societal costs, take longer to emerge and are not yet well understood”, it said.
asserted
it → take → health
Switzerland is intending to answer precisely those questions and could be the key to change closer to home in our capital.
uncertain
Switzerland → intend → capital
Basel’s suburban dispensary, Grashaus, is discreetly situated on a quiet residential street between a restaurant and a funeral home.
asserted
dispensary → situate → restaurant
Inside its frosted windows, pastel furniture, pale wood shelving and house plants make it look more like a Scandinavian lifestyle boutique.
asserted
it → make → boutique
The tasteful decor reflects cannabis’ increasingly mainstream place in modern culture.
asserted
decor → reflect → culture
For many its widespread appeal is straightforward: relaxation, enhanced appreciation of music or food, or simply a different way of unwinding at the end of the day.
asserted
appeal → enhance → day
Others self-medicate with cannabis instead of using pharmaceutical drugs.
asserted
Others → medicate → drugs
The 21-year-old says that before she started consuming cannabis she had “debilitating” anxiety and suffered from insomnia.
asserted
she → say → insomnia
But now her panic attacks are far less common, and she can sleep much more easily.
asserted
she → sleep → ?
“It has helped a lot,” she says, without wishing to use her surname for privacy reasons.
asserted
she → help → reasons
“People are going to buy cannabis anyway, so it’s better to do it in a safe setting”
asserted
it → go → setting
Without the regulated study and her membership card, she would instead be buying on the street from a dealer — a prospect she is particularly wary of as a trans woman.
asserted
she → buy → woman
Equally, she prefers the organic cannabis at Grashaus to the illegal-market weed of wildly varying strengths.
asserted
she → prefer → strengths
“You never really know who you’re meeting up with,” Esme says.
asserted
Esme → know → who
“You’re just hitting up whoever on social media.
asserted
You → hit → media
People are going to buy cannabis anyway, so it’s better to do it in a safe setting.
asserted
it → go → setting
In 2013, Switzerland decriminalised possession of up to 10 grams, and its university-affiliated pilots encompass dozens of dispensaries, social clubs where members can consume, high-street pharmacies dispensing cannabis alongside prescription drugs, and non-profit stores run by the state.
asserted
members → decriminalise → state
Basel approach is cautious
“Cannabis isn’t for everyone, and our staff say so openly,” says Adele Hollmann, the scientific affairs manager at Sanity Group, the company behind Grashaus.
asserted
Hollmann → say → Grashaus
“But people use it whether it’s legal or not.
asserted
it → use → it
Switzerland has accepted that reality and is testing which model works best before deciding how to regulate it.
asserted
model → accept → it
In the meantime, adults who choose to use it get quality-controlled products and honest information about what they’re consuming.
asserted
they → choose → what
The early Swiss studies mostly involve pre-existing cannabis consumers only and are not necessarily representative of a fully legal market, but the findings are intriguing.
asserted
findings → involve → market
Initial data suggests that legalisation may even reduce cannabis use.
uncertain
legalisation → suggest → use
Data from Grashaus also suggests that people will mostly purchase from legal sources if they have the option.
uncertain
they → suggest → option
Four-in-five participants also say staff are a useful source of advice on lower-risk use, with tobacco consumption with cannabis declining significantly.
asserted
consumption → say → cannabis
Experts, scientists and politicians are now calling for London to follow the Swiss and establish its own pilot scheme to assess the benefits and risks of a regulated cannabis market.
asserted
London → call → market
Legalisation could be a boon for tax revenues, likely raising billions over a decade, according to one nationwide projection.
uncertain
Legalisation → raise → projection
Nor would London be venturing entirely into the unknown.
asserted
London → venture → unknown
Canada legalised recreational cannabis in 2018, while half of US states have legalised it for adult use.
asserted
half → legalise → use
…and 40 more, not listed.
The Aporia
