Where can I get something to smoke?

When the hemp stores were closed canton by canton in the first years of the new millennium, many inquiries came in the style of: “My hemp store is closed - where should I buy my weed now?”

Well, of course we can't answer that directly. Firstly, we would make ourselves liable to prosecution if we named such places. Secondly, no hemp store that is still selling hash or weed in these difficult times has any interest in being named on the phone or on the Internet. The risk of harsh punishment is far too great.

The trade has gone underground again. Be it in the alley, where mainly heroin addicts sell imported hashish. Or covertly in stores that in no way carry the term “hemp” in their name, or in private homes.

In any case, to get good goods, personal relationships are needed again. Especially the good qualities have become very rare - and logically the prices for them have risen. If they can be traded at all on a larger scale. (Continues below.)

It would be possible for different hemp consumers to get together and produce weed (indoors or outdoors) and share it among themselves. Such a club would have the advantage that there is no “evil, profit-seeking dealer”. This does not mean that there could not be criminal proceedings in the worst case.

But in the absence of the actual dealer, a judge would not necessarily have to consider such a club as a profit-seeking trafficking circle (and punish it with more than one year in prison), but could convict the club members for consumption and preparatory acts. Which would “merely” result in a fine.

But such a model would need a relatively high level of commitment from members and a lot of trust among them. But such structures could be the first to be tolerated by the police and the judiciary - if they work covertly, do not make large turnovers or profits, and are open only to adults in Switzerland.

In the field of medical hemp, there are already beginnings of such clubs - we will see if this can be expanded with the innovations on medical hemp.

Of course, you can just grow for yourselves. Rich people clearly have advantages here: Those who own a large garden or even a larger estate can often grow hemp for THC consumption for a long time without getting into trouble. A balcony that is out of sight can also do a good job. Especially if you do not consume very much, a few plants per fall can cover the year's needs until the next harvest.

For those who do not have such opportunities, you can also resort to indoor cultivation with artificial light. Here, however, the effort is much greater: it requires several hundred francs investments in lamps, ventilation, filters and the fight against pests is costly - you have to work very cleanly (actually like in a laboratory). But despite the effort, more and more consumers go this way, because buying on the street is for many no perspective at all.