For two years now, the Federal Statistical Office FSO has been releasing figures on cannabis repression.

The new distinction between contraventions and misdemeanor makes more sense - the former are punished with a fine and fees (total of a few hundred francs), while the latter are additionally punished with monetary penalty/day sentences or imprisonment, as well as an entry in the criminal record.

The graph shows that over 7,000 people were recorded by the police for a cannabis offense, both in 2009 and 2010. And we see that the growth in 2009/2010 was substantial, at 5%.

Criminal offenses were even counted around 8'000 per year, again with a growth of 5%.

We cannot emphasize it enough: Anyone who produces, buys, possesses and then consumes hashish and weed alone or with adults commits a contravention. The penalty for this is usually a fine in the amount of a few hundred francs (including fees). There is no entry in the criminal record.

Who gives away only half a gram or smokes together with young people, commits a misdemeanor. The range of punishment lies here with up to three years imprisonment, with entry in the criminal register. So: it is better to possess a kilo for yourself than to give away 0.1 gram!

If someone endangers the health of many people with his illegal activities (which is no longer possible with cannabis since 1991 according to the Federal Court), acts as a member of a gang, achieves a large turnover (according to the Federal Court 100,000 francs), a considerable profit (10,000 francs) or - and this is a novelty - traffics in narcotics in or around training centers for young people, this is considered a serious case. Here, the minimum penalty is one year imprisonment. This can then go up to 20 years.

What exactly trafficking in the “immediate vicinity” of training centers means (three meters, 100 meters?) will have to be decided by the courts.

Offences due to cannabis misdemeanor in Switzerland, 2009 and 2010

For years, trafficking did not seem to interest the investigating authorities in the same way as consumption. For a long time, the number of trafficking reports was more or less constant. The year with the highest number of prosecutions was 1987, with almost 3,000 prosecutions for trafficking. Since then, the number has remained almost constant, with slightly more than 2,000 reports every year. In 2002 and 2003, however, we now see that the police have taken massive action against the stores, and in 2003, for the first time, over 3,500 traffickers were reported. A sudden increase, which shows that the repressive organs had now clarified the formerly unclear term “hemp weed for narcotic production” and started to clean up.

The shift from selling hash to selling weed can also be seen here. In roughly the same framework, with the advent of hemp stores, black market activities on the street also collapsed, and the street trade no longer had much to report. However, for the first time in almost a decade, hashish trafficking arrests increased again, albeit slightly, from 2002 to 2003 - now hashish is again increasingly being imported from Morocco. With the dismantling of the “new” hemp stores, the “old” traffickers are back in business. Next year's repression statistics will show whether this continues.

Where the repression has raged, a good part of the trade takes place on the street again. Or the weed sellers disguise themselves better and go (again) underground, continue at home in a smaller circle, or disguise their cannabis trade as a video store, a bookstore, a clothing store, a wine store. Or they don't open a store at all, but rent a studio somewhere and open a kind of underground coffee shop there. Or open a club and sell only to the members (who must be over 18 and trusted). Such covert activities can run much longer (and above all more stress-free) than the hemp stores, which had offered themselves with their publicity to the investigating authorities on a platter. So, in fact, the police and the judiciary enable people with greater criminal energy to profit from the hemp trade again.

prosecution traffickers in figures 1974 to 2006