Cannabis in the Swiss Economy
Economic Effects of Current and Alternative Regulation
Oliver Hoff – author of the book
German summary 118 pages – Seismo Verlag
Oliver Hoff, Dr., is an economist and social scientist. He is a member of the “Economy and Society” business unit at EBP Switzerland AG and an associated researcher at the Institute for Sociological Research at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Geneva.
Cannabis has been banned in Switzerland since 1951. Seventy years later, much has changed, and there is open debate about whether prohibition as a form of regulation best serves the public interest. Oliver Hoff analyses the economic effects triggered by cannabis in Switzerland under the current regulation. Based on this, alternative regulatory scenarios are constructed based on the experiences of other countries and the associated economic mechanisms and their magnitude are examined. The book concludes that the current form of regulation produces an economically inefficient result. Actors operating illegally benefit from artificially high profit margins, while health policy concerns are largely missed due to a lack of regulatory access. Alternative regulatory approaches offer interesting opportunities to solve these problems, but also entail risks that must be taken into account in the discussion about the future regulation of cannabis.
The extended English edition (330 pages) can be downloaded from the SECO website. This version includes explanations of a study.