Switzerland’s market for legal cannabis with just 1 percent THC is taking off as producers are having trouble keeping up with demand and the number of registered retailers has grown significantly in the last year, according to a report from Reuters. A spokesman for Switzerland’s Customs Agency, responsible for taxing the products, indicated they expect about $25 million in revenue on legal sales of about $100 million this year.
“It started gradually last year, and then suddenly things went crazy in December 2016 and in 2017,” the spokesperson said in the report.
KannaSwiss, a low-THC cannabis wholesaler, has quadrupled its staff to 20 since last year but co-founder Corso Serra di Cassano said the company is still having trouble keeping up with orders.
“You feel like you should be high, because you have a body high, but your mind is completely clear,” di Cassano said in the report, describing the high produced by the low-potency products. “We’re really seeing the boom in the last month or two.”
Although the products contain a small amount of THC some from the medical community are still concerned that there could be health risks, and police often still confiscate cannabis because they can’t be sure whether the product contains the legal amount of THC.
Barbara Broers, vice-president of the Swiss Society of Addiction Medicine, said growers could be using pest control chemicals.
“We don’t know what is in it,” she said. “There are inadequate checks of really what is in the substance.”
Switzerland began to allow the sale of the low-THC cannabis in 2011.