Regulated Recreational Cannabis Emerging in Europe
Europe has been on the forefront of the world’s medical cannabis industry; innovating, researching, and legislating for change - but has trailed far behind on the recreational side of things. Slowly but surely the situation is changing, with multiple projects popping up in localised areas across the continent - Switzerland, Luxembourg, and cities such as Copenhagen are all embracing proposals that could lead to a legal recreational cannabis infrastructure in the next decade. After neighbouring countries have seen successful implementation, they will be encouraged to follow suit.
Luxembourg carried out trials of medical cannabis in 2018 and then made permanent the policies and infrastructure that they implemented. This spurred the new coalition government to discuss plans for recreational legislation in late 2018. Luxembourg's system is still being formulated but the coalition has revealed some general policies of the recreational market to local radio stations. They said they will only allow around 14 licensed dispensaries which can only sell domestically grown cannabis from a handful of producers. Other measures include a maximum of 30 grams a month per adult and residents-only access to dispensaries to discourage cannabis tourism. It could take at least two years until it is rolled out, but all three political parties are keen to get the ball rolling. The country only has a population of 615,000, but the political impact on neighbouring countries could be very significant.
The Copenhagen City Council are also looking seriously at a legal recreational cannabis system. The city has always had a relationship with the drug through the illegal markets of the Christiania neighbourhood, where local and imported cannabis produce is on sale in an open market, with the police hardly interfering. But now the city wants to set an example for the rest of the country and do recreational properly - 44 out of 55 city council representatives have voted to go ahead with legal dispensaries for the city. This would be 6 or so outlets around the city which will be extremely regulated and staffed by individuals with extensive training.
Switzerland is currently gearing up to trial regional pilot schemes across the country. They were among the first in Europe to embrace CBD and cannabis wellness products, but now they want to test the market for high THC flowers and products - we previously reported on this here. In the Netherlands, the government is looking to legitimise the coffeeshop supply chain, we previously wrote about this here.
The historic coffeeshops of the Netherlands and the more relatively recent social clubs in Spain have demonstrated a clear and strong demand for recreational cannabis products - alongside the huge illegal cannabis market. Last year Europe registered over one million cannabis offences and the continent has had over 25 million consumers of the drug in the same year according to the 2020 EMCDDA drug report. Overall there has been a rise in cannabis offences, however there are some anomalies like the UK where cannabis offences fell by 40% in the last 5 years. Whether the law catches up with them or not, Europe's cannabis consumers are out in plain sight - and the best way to meet the demand is to set up a recreational cannabis system. However, many European countries are hesitant to plunge into legalising recreational cannabis in the same way as the United States, and are instead taking a slow and calculated approach by deploying regional pilot schemes. This could mean a more long term stretch till the full deployment of legal recreational cannabis in Europe, but once the ball is rolling it will be impossible to stop.