Federal Act
on Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances
(Narcotics Act, NarcA)¹

This Act is in­ten­ded to:

a.

pre­vent the un­au­thor­ised con­sump­tion of nar­cot­ics and psy­cho­trop­ic sub­stances, in par­tic­u­lar by en­cour­aging ab­stin­ence;

b.

reg­u­late the avail­ab­il­ity of nar­cot­ics and psy­cho­trop­ic sub­stances for med­ic­al and sci­entif­ic pur­poses;

c.

pro­tect per­sons against the neg­at­ive health-re­lated and so­cial con­sequences of men­tal and be­ha­vi­our­al dis­orders as­so­ci­ated with de­pend­ence;

d.

pro­tect pub­lic or­der, safety and se­cur­ity the risks posed by nar­cot­ics and psy­cho­trop­ic sub­stances;

e.

com­bat crim­in­al acts closely con­nec­ted with nar­cot­ics and psy­cho­trop­ic sub­stances.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion and the can­tons shall in­tro­duce meas­ures in the fol­low­ing four areas (the four-pil­lar policy):

a.

pre­ven­tion;

b.

ther­apy and re­in­teg­ra­tion;

c.

harm re­duc­tion and sur­viv­al sup­port;

d.

con­trol and law en­force­ment.

² In do­ing so, the Con­fed­er­a­tion and the can­tons shall take ac­count of the con­cerns of pro­tect­ing pub­lic health and minors.

Nar­cot­ics used as thera­peut­ic sub­stances are gov­erned by the pro­vi­sions of the Thera­peut­ic Products Act of 15 Decem­ber 2000⁹. The pro­vi­sions of this Act ap­ply, in­so­far as the Thera­peut­ic Products Act con­tains no rule or a less strin­gent rule.

In this Act:

a.

nar­cot­ics means sub­stances and pre­par­a­tions that cause de­pend­ence that have the ef­fects as­so­ci­ated with morphine, co­caine or can­nabis, and sub­stances and pre­par­a­tions pro­duced on their basis of or that have a sim­il­ar ef­fect to the same;

b.

psy­cho­trop­ic sub­stancesmeans sub­stances and pre­par­a­tions that cause de­pend­ence that con­tain amphet­am­ines, bar­bit­ur­ates, ben­zo­diazepines or hal­lu­cino­gens such as lys­er­gide or mes­caline or that have a sim­il­ar ef­fect to the same;

c.

sub­stances means raw ma­ter­i­als such as plants or fungi or parts there­of, and chem­ic­ally pro­duced com­pounds;

d.

pre­par­a­tions means ready-to-use nar­cot­ics and psy­cho­trop­ic sub­stances;

e.

pre­curs­ors means sub­stances that do not cause de­pend­ence, but which may be trans­formed in­to nar­cot­ics or psy­cho­trop­ic sub­stances;

f.

aux­il­i­ary chem­ic­als means sub­stances that as­sist in the pro­duc­tion of nar­cot­ics and psy­cho­trop­ic sub­stances.

The Fed­er­al De­part­ment of Home Af­fairs shall main­tain a list of nar­cot­ics, psy­cho­trop­ic sub­stances pre­curs­ors and aux­il­i­ary chem­ic­als. It shall gen­er­ally base this list on the re­com­mend­a­tions of the rel­ev­ant in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­isa­tions.

Un­less this Act provides oth­er­wise, the pro­vi­sions on nar­cot­ics also ap­ply to psy­cho­trop­ic sub­stances.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may make pre­curs­ors and aux­il­i­ary chem­ic­als sub­ject to the nar­cot­ics con­trols set out in Chapters 2 and 3. It may re­quire a li­cence or oth­er less strin­gent mon­it­or­ing meas­ures, such as cus­tom­er iden­ti­fic­a­tion, ac­count­ing ob­lig­a­tions and du­ties to provide in­form­a­tion. In do­ing so, it shall gen­er­ally fol­low the re­com­mend­a­tions of the rel­ev­ant in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­isa­tions.¹⁴

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may par­tially or - in cer­tain con­cen­tra­tions or quant­it­ies - en­tirely ex­empt nar­cot­ics from the con­trol meas­ures if the rel­ev­ant in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­isa­tions (United Na­tions, World Health Or­gan­isa­tion) de­cide on or re­com­mend the ex­emp­tion based on an agree­ment rat­i­fied by Switzer­land.¹⁵

³ …¹⁶

⁴ When im­ple­ment­ing para­graph 1, in par­tic­u­lar for du­ties to provide in­form­a­tion or ad­vice, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil may call on the as­sist­ance of private or­gan­isa­tions.¹⁷

¹ The can­tons shall pro­mote edu­ca­tion and ad­vice on the pre­ven­tion of dis­orders as­so­ci­ated with ad­dic­tion and their neg­at­ive health-re­lated and so­cial con­sequences. In do­ing so, they shall pay spe­cial at­ten­tion to the pro­tec­tion of chil­dren and ad­oles­cents. They shall in­tro­duce ad­equate gen­er­al con­di­tions and cre­ate the re­quired fa­cil­it­ies or sup­port private in­sti­tu­tions that meet the qual­ity re­quire­ments.

² The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall con­duct na­tion­al pro­grammes on pre­ven­tion and in par­tic­u­lar en­cour­age the early re­cog­ni­tion of dis­orders as­so­ci­ated with ad­dic­tion; in do­ing so, it shall pri­or­it­ise the con­cerns re­lat­ing to the pro­tec­tion of chil­dren and ad­oles­cents. It shall raise pub­lic aware­ness of the prob­lems of ad­dic­tion.

¹ Pub­lic of­fices and spe­cial­ists in the edu­ca­tion, so­cial work, health, justice and po­lice sec­tors may re­port cases of ex­ist­ent or an­ti­cip­ated dis­orders as­so­ci­ated with ad­dic­tion, in par­tic­u­lar in cases in­volving chil­dren and ad­oles­cents, to the rel­ev­ant treat­ment or so­cial as­sist­ance agen­cies, if:

a.

they have iden­ti­fied the same in the course of their of­fi­cial or pro­fes­sion­al activ­it­ies;

b.

the per­sons con­cerned, their de­pend­ants or the gen­er­al pub­lic are placed at risk; and

c.

they re­gard a su­per­vi­sion meas­ure as ap­pro­pri­ate.

² If a re­port relates to a child or an ad­oles­cent un­der 18, his or her leg­al rep­res­ent­at­ive must also be in­formed, un­less there is good cause for not do­ing so.

³ The can­tons shall des­ig­nate pro­fes­sion­ally qual­i­fied pub­lic or private treat­ment or so­cial as­sist­ance agen­cies that are re­spons­ible for su­per­vising re­por­ted per­sons, in par­tic­u­lar chil­dren or ad­oles­cents at risk.

⁴ The staff of the rel­ev­ant treat­ment or so­cial as­sist­ance agen­cies are sub­ject to of­fi­cial and pro­fes­sion­al secrecy in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 320 and 321 of the Crim­in­al Code²⁰.²¹

⁵ Pub­lic of­fices and spe­cial­ists un­der para­graph 1 who learn that a per­son un­der their su­per­vi­sion has breached Art­icle 19a are not ob­liged to file a crim­in­al com­plaint.

¹ The can­tons shall en­sure the su­per­vi­sion of per­sons with dis­orders as­so­ci­ated with ad­dic­tion who re­quire the med­ic­al or psy­cho-so­cial treat­ment or wel­fare meas­ures.

² The treat­ment is car­ried out with the aim of guar­an­tee­ing the thera­peut­ic and so­cial in­teg­ra­tion von per­sons with dis­orders as­so­ci­ated with ad­dic­tion, im­prov­ing their phys­ic­al and psy­cho­lo­gic­al health and cre­at­ing con­di­tions in which they can live a drug-free life.

³ The can­tons shall also sup­port the pro­fes­sion­al and so­cial re­in­teg­ra­tion of such per­sons.

⁴ They shall cre­ate the fa­cil­it­ies re­quired for treat­ment and the re­in­teg­ra­tion or sup­port private in­sti­tu­tions that meet the qual­ity re­quire­ments.

⁵ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall is­sue re­com­mend­a­tions on the prin­ciples for fund­ing ad­dic­tion ther­apies and re­in­teg­ra­tion meas­ures.

¹ A li­cence is re­quired for pre­scrib­ing, dis­pens­ing and ad­min­is­ter­ing nar­cot­ics in or­der to treat per­sons de­pend­ent on nar­cot­ics. The li­cence is is­sued by the can­tons.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may lay down gen­er­al con­di­tions.

³ Heroin-based treat­ment re­quires a fed­er­al li­cence. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall is­sue spe­cial pro­vi­sions. It shall in par­tic­u­lar en­sure that:

a.

heroin is only pre­scribed to per­sons de­pend­ent on nar­cot­ics who have failed to re­spond to oth­er forms of treat­ment or whose state of health pre­cludes oth­er forms of treat­ment;

b.

heroin is only pre­scribed by spe­cial­ist phys­i­cians in ap­pro­pri­ate fa­cil­it­ies;

c.

the con­duct of and pro­gress with heroin-based treat­ment is re­viewed peri­od­ic­ally.

¹ The au­thor­it­ies and in­sti­tu­tions re­spons­ible for the im­ple­ment­a­tion of this Act are en­titled to pro­cess per­son­al data, and in par­tic­u­lar sens­it­ive per­son­al data and per­son­al­ity pro­files in or­der to re­view the re­quire­ments for and the pro­gress with the treat­ment of per­sons de­pend­ent on nar­cot­ics.

² They shall guar­an­tee the pro­tec­tion of data in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1 through tech­nic­al and or­gan­isa­tion­al meas­ures.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the de­tails, in par­tic­u­lar:

a.

the au­thor­it­ies and in­sti­tu­tions re­spons­ible for the data pro­cessing;

b.

the data to be pro­cessed;

c.

the data flows;

d.

the rights of ac­cess.

In or­der to pre­vent or re­duce health-re­lated and so­cial harm among per­sons with dis­orders as­so­ci­ated with ad­dic­tion, the can­tons shall in­tro­duce harm re­duc­tion and sur­viv­al sup­port meas­ures. They shall cre­ate the re­quired fa­cil­it­ies or sup­port private in­sti­tu­tions that meet the qual­ity re­quire­ments.

If an of­fi­cial agency fears that a per­son poses a risk to road, ship­ping or civil avi­ation traffic due to a dis­order as­so­ci­ated with ad­dic­tion, it must no­ti­fy the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall sup­port the can­tons and private or­gan­isa­tions in re­la­tion to pre­ven­tion, ther­apy and harm re­duc­tion by provid­ing ser­vices; it shall sup­port them in par­tic­u­lar:

a.

with co­ordin­a­tion, in­clud­ing plan­ning and man­aging the ser­vice offered;

b.

with the im­ple­ment­a­tion of qual­ity meas­ures and proven in­ter­ven­tion mod­els.

² It shall in­form them of new sci­entif­ic find­ings.

³ It may take its own ad­di­tion­al meas­ures to re­duce ad­dic­tion prob­lems or en­trust their im­ple­ment­a­tion to private or­gan­isa­tions.

The Con­fed­er­a­tion may in terms of the Fed­er­al Re­search Act of 7 Oc­to­ber 1983²⁴ sup­port sci­entif­ic re­search in the fol­low­ing fields in par­tic­u­lar:

a.

the mode of ac­tion of sub­stances that in­duce ad­dic­tion;

b.

the causes and ef­fects of dis­orders as­so­ci­ated with ad­dic­tion;

c.

pre­vent­ive and thera­peut­ic meas­ures;

d.

the pre­ven­tion or re­duc­tion of dis­orders as­so­ci­ated with ad­dic­tion;

e.

the ef­fect­ive­ness of re­in­teg­ra­tion meas­ures.

The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall sup­port ba­sic and ad­vanced train­ing in the fields of pre­ven­tion, ther­apy and re­in­teg­ra­tion, and in harm re­duc­tion and sur­viv­al sup­port.

In con­sulta­tion with the can­tons, the Con­fed­er­a­tion shall de­vel­op re­com­mend­a­tions on qual­ity as­sur­ance in the fields of the pre­ven­tion, ther­apy and re­in­teg­ra­tion, and of harm re­duc­tion and sur­viv­al sup­port.

¹ Busi­nesses and per­sons that cul­tiv­ate, pro­duce, pro­cess or trade in nar­cot­ics re­quire a li­cence from the Swiss Agency for Thera­peut­ic Products (the Agency). Art­icle 8 is re­served.²⁶

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the re­quire­ments for the grant, ex­piry or with­draw­al of the li­cence, and its form, con­tent and term of valid­ity.

¹ Any im­port or ex­port of nar­cot­ics sub­ject to con­trol re­quires a li­cence from the Agency.²⁸ This shall be gran­ted in ac­cord­ance with the in­ter­na­tion­al agree­ment. An ex­port li­cence may also be gran­ted even if it is not re­quired un­der this Act and the in­ter­na­tion­al agree­ments but re­ques­ted by the coun­try of des­tin­a­tion.²⁹

^1bis The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may is­sue spe­cial pro­vi­sions on the im­port or ex­port of nar­cot­ics by trav­el­lers suf­fer­ing from med­ic­al con­di­tions. The Agency may pro­cess sens­it­ive per­son­al data con­nec­ted with the im­port or ex­port of nar­cot­ics by trav­el­lers suf­fer­ing from med­ic­al con­di­tions, provided this is re­quired by in­ter­na­tion­al agree­ments.³⁰

² The su­per­vi­sion of the trans­it of nar­cot­ics shall be car­ried out by the Cus­toms Ad­min­is­tra­tion in con­sulta­tion with the Agency.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may pro­hib­it li­cence hold­ers from cul­tiv­at­ing, man­u­fac­tur­ing, im­port­ing or ex­port­ing, or stock­pil­ing on the basis of in­ter­na­tion­al agree­ments.³²

² It may del­eg­ate the power to is­sue such rul­ings to the Fed­er­al De­part­ment of Home Af­fairs while re­tain­ing its over­sight.

¹ Raw ma­ter­i­als and products sus­pec­ted of hav­ing sim­il­ar ef­fects to the sub­stances and pre­par­a­tions in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 2 may only be cul­tiv­ated, pro­duced, im­por­ted or ex­por­ted, stored, used or placed on the mar­ket with a li­cence is­sued by the Fed­er­al De­part­ment of Home Af­fairs and in ac­cord­ance with its con­di­tions.

² The Agency shall es­tab­lish wheth­er raw ma­ter­i­als and products are sub­stances or pre­par­a­tions in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 2. If this is the case, a li­cence un­der Art­icles 4 and 5 is re­quired.

³ The Fed­er­al De­part­ment of Home Af­fairs shall main­tain a list of these sub­stances and pre­par­a­tions.

¹ The fol­low­ing nar­cot­ics may not be cul­tiv­ated, im­por­ted, pro­duced or placed on the mar­ket:³⁵

a.

opi­um for smoking and the residues cre­ated in its pro­duc­tion or use;

b.

di­acetyl­morphine and its salts;

c.

hal­lu­cino­gens such as lys­er­gide (LSD 25);

d.³⁶

nar­cot­ics con­tain­ing an ef­fect­ive con­cen­tra­tion of can­nabin­oids.³⁷

² ...³⁸

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may pro­hib­it the im­port, pro­duc­tion and pla­cing on the mar­ket of fur­ther nar­cot­ics if in­ter­na­tion­al agree­ments pro­hib­it their pro­duc­tion or the most im­port­ant pro­du­cer coun­tries cease their pro­duc­tion.³⁹

⁴ Any stocks of pro­hib­ited nar­cot­ics must be trans­formed un­der the su­per­vi­sion of the rel­ev­ant can­ton­al au­thor­ity in to a leg­ally-per­mit­ted sub­stance or, if this is not pos­sible, des­troyed.

⁵ The Fed­er­al Of­fice of Pub­lic Health may is­sue ex­cep­tion­al li­cences for cul­tiv­at­ing, im­port­ing, pro­du­cing and pla­cing on the mar­ket the nar­cot­ics men­tioned in para­graphs 1 and 3, where this is not pro­hib­ited by an in­ter­na­tion­al agree­ment and these nar­cot­ics are needed for sci­entif­ic re­search, the de­vel­op­ment of medi­cin­al products or for re­stric­ted med­ic­al use.⁴⁰

⁶ For the cul­tiv­a­tion of a nar­cot­ic men­tioned in para­graphs 1 and 3 that is an act­ive in­gredi­ent in an au­thor­ised medi­cin­al product, an ex­cep­tion­al li­cence is re­quired from the Fed­er­al Of­fice of Pub­lic Health.⁴¹

⁷ For the im­port, pro­duc­tion and pla­cing on the mar­ket of a nar­cot­ic men­tioned in para­graphs 1 and 3 that is an act­ive in­gredi­ent in an au­thor­ised medi­cin­al product, a li­cence is re­quired from the Agency in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 4.⁴²

⁸ The Fed­er­al Of­fice of Pub­lic Health may grant ex­cep­tion­al li­cences, provided the sub­stances men­tioned in the para­graphs 1 and 3 are used in con­trol meas­ures.⁴³

¹ After con­sult­ing the can­tons and com­munes con­cerned, the Fed­er­al Of­fice of Pub­lic Health may au­thor­ise sci­entif­ic pi­lot tri­als in­volving nar­cot­ics con­tain­ing an ef­fect­ive con­cen­tra­tion of can­nabin­oids:

a.

that are lim­ited in terms of loc­a­tion, time and sub­ject mat­ter;

b.

that al­low find­ings to made on the im­pact of new reg­u­la­tions on the use of these nar­cot­ics for non-med­ic­al pur­poses and on the health of par­ti­cipants;

c.

that are con­duc­ted so as to en­sure the pro­tec­tion of health and of minors, and the pro­tec­tion of pub­lic or­der and pub­lic safety; and

d.

in which, if pos­sible, can­nabis products are used that are of Swiss ori­gin and that com­ply with the rules of Swiss or­gan­ic farm­ing.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the re­quire­ments for con­duct­ing the pi­lot tri­als. In do­ing so, it may derog­ate from Art­icles 8 para­graphs 1 let­ter d and 5, 11, 13, 19 para­graph 1 let­ter f and 20 para­graph 1 let­ters d and e.

³ Nar­cot­ics con­tain­ing an ef­fect­ive con­cen­tra­tion of can­nabin­oids that are sup­plied in the course of the pi­lot tri­als are ex­empt from to­bacco tax un­der Art­icle 4 of the To­bacco Tax Act of 21 March 1969⁴⁵.

¹ Med­ic­al pro­fes­sion­als as defined in the thera­peut­ic products le­gis­la­tion⁴⁶, who carry out their pro­fes­sion­al activ­it­ies in­de­pend­ently in ac­cord­ance with the Med­ic­al Pro­fes­sions Act of 23 June 2006⁴⁷ either as a private busi­ness or in the ser­vice of the can­tons or com­munes and who have the rel­ev­ant can­ton­al au­thor­isa­tion, and man­agers of pub­lic or hos­pit­al phar­ma­cies may ac­quire, store, use and dis­pense nar­cot­ics without li­cences; the fore­go­ing does not ap­ply to ex­cep­tion­al li­cences un­der Art­icle 8. Can­ton­al pro­vi­sions on dir­ect dis­pens­ing by phys­i­cians, dent­ists and veter­in­ary sur­geons are re­served.⁴⁸

² Au­thor­isa­tion un­der para­graph 1 is also gran­ted to med­ic­al pro­fes­sion­als and stu­dents of med­ic­al pro­fes­sions at uni­versity level who are au­thor­ised by the rel­ev­ant can­ton­al au­thor­ity to rep­res­ent a med­ic­al pro­fes­sion­al in a med­ic­al pro­fes­sion at uni­versity level.⁴⁹

^2a ...⁵⁰

³ ...⁵¹

⁴ The can­tons may lim­it the au­thor­isa­tion gran­ted to dent­ists to spe­cif­ic nar­cot­ics.

⁵ The con­di­tions that ap­ply to for­eign san­at­ori­ums in Switzer­land shall be reg­u­lated by the can­tons shall in con­sulta­tion with the Agency.

¹ Phys­i­cians and veter­in­ary sur­geons who carry out their pro­fes­sion­al activ­it­ies in­de­pend­ently in ac­cord­ance with the Med­ic­al Pro­fes­sions Act of 23 June 2006⁵² are au­thor­ised to pre­scribe nar­cot­ics.⁵³

² For­eign phys­i­cians and veter­in­ary sur­geons en­titled to prac­tise their pro­fes­sions in the Swiss bor­der areas un­der in­ter­na­tion­al agree­ments may use and pre­scribe the nar­cot­ics re­quired for do­ing so; the re­lated pre­scrip­tions must be ex­ecuted by a phar­macy in the rel­ev­ant bor­der area.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the ad­di­tion­al re­quire­ments un­der which a pre­scrip­tion for nar­cot­ics is­sued by a for­eign phys­i­cian or veter­in­ary sur­geon in Switzer­land may be ex­ecuted.

¹ Phys­i­cians and veter­in­ary sur­geons are ob­liged to use, dis­pense and pre­scribe nar­cot­ics only in the quant­it­ies ne­ces­sary ac­cord­ing to the re­cog­nised rules of med­ic­al sci­ence.

^1bis Phys­i­cians and veter­in­ary sur­geons who dis­pense nar­cot­ics au­thor­ised as medi­cin­al products for in­dic­a­tions oth­er than those for which they were au­thor­ised must re­port this with­in 30 days to the rel­ev­ant can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies. They must provide all the in­form­a­tion re­ques­ted by the rel­ev­ant can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies on the nature and pur­pose of the treat­ment.⁵⁴

² Para­graphs 1 and 1^bis also ap­ply to the use and dis­pens­ing of nar­cot­ics by dent­ists.⁵⁵

¹ The can­tons may re­voke au­thor­isa­tion in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 9 for a lim­ited peri­od or per­man­ently if the au­thor­ised med­ic­al pro­fes­sion­al⁵⁶ is nar­cot­ics de­pend­ent or has com­mit­ted an of­fence un­der Art­icles 19–22.⁵⁷

² The or­der ap­plies throughout the Con­fed­er­a­tion.

³ Art­icle 54 of the Crim­in­al Code⁵⁸ re­mains re­served.

In phar­ma­cies, nar­cot­ics may only be dis­pensed to the pub­lic on the basis of a pre­scrip­tion from a phys­i­cian or veter­in­ary sur­geon.

¹ Hos­pit­als may be gran­ted a li­cence by the rel­ev­ant can­ton­al au­thor­ity to ac­quire, store and use nar­cot­ics ac­cord­ing to their op­er­a­tion­al re­quire­ments, provided a per­son spe­cified in Art­icle 9 is re­spons­ible for their stor­age and use.

² In­sti­tu­tions in­volved in sci­entif­ic re­search may be gran­ted a li­cence by the rel­ev­ant can­ton­al au­thor­ity to cul­tiv­ate, ac­quire, store and use nar­cot­ics to the ex­tent re­quired for their own needs.⁵⁹

³ Art­icle 8 is re­served.⁶⁰

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may li­cense na­tion­al or in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­isa­tions such as those of the Red Cross, the United Na­tions, its spe­cial or­gan­isa­tions and na­tion­al in­sti­tu­tions, and au­thor­it­ies such as the cus­toms and bor­der guard agen­cies to ac­quire, im­port, store, use, pre­scribe, dis­pense or ex­port nar­cot­ics in the course of their activ­it­ies.

^1bis The can­tons may grant a li­cence can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies and com­mun­al au­thor­it­ies, in par­tic­u­lar the po­lice, in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil and the can­tons may re­voke the li­cence they have gran­ted for a lim­ited peri­od or per­man­ently where spe­cial cir­cum­stances so re­quire.

For each sup­ply of nar­cot­ics, a de­liv­ery note must be is­sued and handed to the re­cip­i­ent with the product. The sup­ply must be re­por­ted to the Agency sep­ar­ately. Ex­emp­ted from the fore­go­ing is dis­pens­ing by au­thor­ised med­ic­al pro­fes­sion­als⁶⁶ for the treat­ment of per­sons and an­im­als and to phys­i­cians in the same can­ton­al ter­rit­ory who do not dis­pense dir­ectly.

¹ Busi­nesses, per­sons and in­sti­tu­tions who hold a li­cence un­der Art­icles 4 and 14 para­graph 2 are ob­liged to keep con­stant re­cords of all deal­ing with nar­cot­ics.⁶⁷

² The busi­nesses and per­sons men­tioned in Art­icle 4 must re­port to the Agency⁶⁸ at the end of each year on their deal­ing with nar­cot­ics and the stocks that they hold.⁶⁹

³ Busi­nesses and per­sons li­censed to cul­tiv­ate, pro­duce and pro­cess nar­cot­ics must also re­port to the Agency an­nu­ally on the ex­tent the area un­der cul­tiv­a­tion and the type and quant­ity of nar­cot­ics ob­tained, pro­duced and pro­cessed.⁷⁰

⁴ The per­sons au­thor­ised un­der Art­icle 9 to ac­quire, use or dis­pense nar­cot­ics or the per­sons re­spons­ible for them un­der Art­icle 14 para­graph 1 must jus­ti­fy the use of the nar­cot­ics.

⁵ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall is­sue pro­vi­sions on safe­guard­ing, la­belling and pro­mot­ing nar­cot­ics, as well as the in­form­a­tion giv­en on pack­age in­serts.⁷¹

¹ The busi­nesses, per­sons, fa­cil­it­ies and in­sti­tu­tions sub­ject to of­fi­cial con­trol must make their areas un­der cul­tiv­a­tion, pro­duc­tion, sales and stor­e­rooms ac­cess­ible to the con­trol agen­cies, to­geth­er with their stocks of nar­cot­ics and all re­lated re­ceipts. They must provide in­form­a­tion whenev­er re­ques­ted to do so by the au­thor­it­ies.⁷²

² The pub­lic of­fi­cials of the Con­fed­er­a­tion and the can­tons who are del­eg­ated the task of con­trolling deal­ings in nar­cot­ics must treat the in­form­a­tion ob­tained in do­ing so as con­fid­en­tial. The duty of con­fid­en­ti­al­ity as defined in Art­icle 320 of the Crim­in­al Code⁷³ is un­lim­ited in time.

The dis­clos­ure of per­son­al data to the rel­ev­ant au­thor­it­ies of states bound by one of the Schen­gen As­so­ci­ation Agree­ments⁷⁵ is equi­val­ent to the dis­clos­ure of per­son­al data between fed­er­al bod­ies.

The right to in­form­a­tion is gov­erned by the fed­er­al or can­ton­al data pro­tec­tion pro­vi­sions.⁷⁷ The pro­pri­et­or of the data col­lec­tion shall also provide in­form­a­tion on the de­tails avail­able on the ori­gin of the data.

1 Any per­son who without au­thor­isa­tion:

a.

cul­tiv­ates, pro­duces or oth­er­wise pro­duces nar­cot­ic sub­stances;

b.

stores, sends, trans­ports, im­ports, ex­ports or car­ries in trans­it nar­cot­ic sub­stances,

c.

sells or pre­scribes nar­cot­ic sub­stances, or oth­er­wise pro­cures for such sub­stances for an­oth­er or places such sub­stances on the mar­ket;

d.

pos­sesses, keeps, buys, ac­quires or oth­er­wise ob­tains nar­cot­ic sub­stances;

e.

fin­ances the un­law­ful trade in nar­cot­ic sub­stances or ar­ranges its fin­an­cing;

f.

pub­licly en­cour­ages the con­sump­tion of nar­cot­ic sub­stances or pub­licly an­nounces the op­por­tun­ity to ac­quire or con­sume nar­cot­ic sub­stances;

g.

makes pre­par­a­tions for any of the acts men­tioned in let­ters a–f,

is li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

² The of­fend­er is li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence of not less than one year, which may be com­bined with a mon­et­ary pen­alty, if he or she:

a.

knows or must as­sume that the of­fence relates to a quant­ity of nar­cot­ic sub­stances that could dir­ectly or in­dir­ectly en­danger the health of a large num­ber of people;

b.

acts as a mem­ber of a group that has been formed in or­der to trade un­law­fully in nar­cot­ic sub­stances;

c.

achieves a high turnover or sub­stan­tial profit through com­mer­cial trad­ing;

d.

of­fers, provides or oth­er­wise makes avail­able nar­cot­ic sub­stances in edu­ca­tion­al in­sti­tu­tions at­ten­ded primar­ily by young per­sons or in the im­me­di­ate vi­cin­ity of such in­sti­tu­tions.

³ The court may at its dis­cre­tion mit­ig­ate the pen­alty in the fol­low­ing cases:

a.

an of­fence un­der para­graph 1 let­ter g;

b.

an of­fence un­der para­graph 2, where the of­fend­er is de­pend­ent on nar­cot­ic sub­stances and the of­fence was in­ten­ded to fin­ance his or her own con­sump­tion of nar­cot­ic sub­stances.

4 The of­fend­er also com­mits an of­fence un­der the pro­vi­sions of para­graphs 1 and 2 if he or she com­mit­ted the of­fence abroad but is ap­pre­hen­ded in Switzer­land and is not ex­tra­dited, provided the act is also an of­fence at the place of com­mis­sion. If the law at the place of com­mis­sion is more le­ni­ent, it shall be ap­plied. Art­icle 6 of the Crim­in­al Code⁸¹ ap­plies.

Any per­son who of­fers, sup­plies or in any oth­er way makes ac­cess­ible nar­cot­ics to a per­son un­der 18 without med­ic­al grounds for do­ing so is li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

1. Any per­son who wil­fully con­sumes without au­thor­isa­tion nar­cot­ics or any per­son who com­mits an of­fence in terms of Art­icle 19 for his or her own con­sump­tion is li­able to a fine⁸⁴.

2. In minor cases, no pro­ceed­ings may be taken or the pen­alty may be waived. An of­fi­cial cau­tion may be is­sued.

3. If the of­fend­er is or makes him­self or her­self sub­ject to med­ic­ally su­per­vised care due to con­sump­tion of nar­cot­ics, pro­sec­u­tion may be waived. Crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings shall be con­duc­ted if the of­fend­er with­draws from care or treat­ment.

4. If the of­fend­er is de­pend­ent on nar­cot­ics, the court may or­der him or her to be ad­mit­ted to a hos­pit­al. Art­icle 44 of the Crim­in­al Code⁸⁵ ap­plies mu­tatis mutandis.

¹ Any per­son who pre­pares a neg­li­gible quant­ity of a nar­cot­ic for his or her own con­sump­tion or sup­plies a per­son over the age of 18 free of charge for the pur­pose of con­sum­ing the nar­cot­ic to­geth­er at the same time does not com­mit an of­fence.

² 10 grams of a nar­cot­ic con­tain­ing an ef­fect­ive con­cen­tra­tion of can­nabin­oids con­sti­tutes a neg­li­gible quant­ity.⁸⁷

Any per­son who wil­fully in­cites or at­tempts to in­cite an­oth­er to con­sume nar­cot­ics without au­thor­isa­tion is li­able to a fine.

¹ Any per­son who:

a.

makes an ap­plic­a­tion con­tain­ing false in­form­a­tion in or­der to ob­tain an im­port, trans­it or ex­port li­cence for him or her­self or for an­oth­er;

b.

without a li­cence di­verts nar­cot­ics or sub­stances in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 3 para­graph 1 for which he or she holds a Swiss ex­port li­cence to a dif­fer­ent des­tin­a­tion in Switzer­land or abroad;

c.

without a li­cence cul­tiv­ates, pro­duces, im­ports or ex­ports, stores or places on the mar­ket sub­stances and pre­par­a­tions in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 7;

d.

as a med­ic­al pro­fes­sion­al⁹⁰ uses or dis­penses nar­cot­ics oth­er than in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 11 or 13;

e.

as a phys­i­cian or veter­in­ary sur­geon pre­scribes nar­cot­ics oth­er than in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 11;

is li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or to mon­et­ary pen­alty.

² The of­fend­er is li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence of no less than one year if he or she achieves a large turnover or sub­stan­tial profit through com­mer­cial trad­ing. The cus­todi­al sen­tence may be com­bined with a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

¹ Any per­son who wil­fully:

a.

fails to file re­ports un­der Art­icles 11 para­graph 1^bis, 16 and 17 para­graph 1, is­sue the re­quired de­liv­ery notes or make nar­cot­ics con­trols or provides false in­form­a­tion therein or omits to enter in­form­a­tion that he or she should have in­cluded;

b.

uses de­liv­ery notes or nar­cot­ics con­trols that con­tain false or in­com­plete in­form­a­tion;

is li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing three years or mon­et­ary pen­alty.

² The of­fend­er is li­able to a fine if he or she acts through neg­li­gence.

Any per­son who wil­fully or neg­li­gently:

a.

fails to ful­fil his or her du­ties of care as a per­son au­thor­ised to deal with nar­cot­ics;

b.

breaches the pro­vi­sions on nar­cot­ics ad­vert­ising and in­form­a­tion;

c.

breaches stor­age and re­ten­tion ob­lig­a­tions;

d.

breaches an im­ple­ment­a­tion reg­u­la­tion is­sued by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil or the rel­ev­ant de­part­ment, the con­tra­ven­tion of which is de­clared a crim­in­al of­fence, or an or­der is­sued to him con­tain­ing a ref­er­ence to the pen­alty un­der this art­icle;

is li­able to a fine.

¹ If a pub­lic of­fi­cial re­spons­ible for im­ple­ment­ing this Act wil­fully com­mits an of­fence un­der Art­icles 19–22, the pen­alty shall be in­creased ap­pro­pri­ately.

² A pub­lic of­fi­cial re­spons­ible for com­bat­ing un­au­thor­ised deal­ings in nar­cot­ics who ac­cepts an of­fer of nar­cot­ics in or­der to as­sist with in­vest­ig­a­tions does not com­mit an of­fence, even if he or she does not dis­close his or her iden­tity and func­tion.⁹⁴

¹ Un­law­ful as­sets loc­ated in Switzer­land shall be for­feited to the State even if the of­fence is com­mit­ted abroad. Where there is no place of jur­is­dic­tion un­der Art­icle 32 of the Crim­in­al Pro­ced­ure Code of 5 Oc­to­ber 2007⁹⁶ (CPC), the can­ton in which the as­sets are loc­ated is re­spons­ible for ar­ran­ging their for­feit­ure.⁹⁷

² The rel­ev­ant au­thor­it­ies shall con­fis­cate the nar­cot­ics ob­tained in im­ple­ment­ing this Act and ar­range for their dis­pos­al or de­struc­tion.⁹⁸

The gen­er­al pro­vi­sions of the Crim­in­al Code¹⁰⁰ ap­ply un­less this Act it­self con­tains pro­vi­sions.

¹ The spe­cial pro­vi­sions of the Crim­in­al Code¹⁰² and the pro­vi­sions of the Food­stuffs Act of 20 June 2014¹⁰³ are re­served.¹⁰⁴

²In the event of the un­au­thor­ised im­port, ex­port or trans­it of nar­cot­ics in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 19, the crim­in­al pro­vi­sions of the Cus­toms Act of 18 March 2005¹⁰⁵ and the Or­din­ance of 29 March 2000¹⁰⁶ to the Fed­er­al Act on Value Ad­ded Tax do not ap­ply.

¹ Pro­sec­u­tion is the re­spons­ib­il­ity of the can­tons.

² Art­icles 6 and 7 of the Fed­er­al Act of 22 March 1974¹⁰⁹ on Ad­min­is­trat­ive Crim­in­al Law also ap­ply to pro­sec­u­tion by can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies.

³ No­tice of con­vic­tions, pen­alty or­ders and de­cisions not to pro­ceed in cases un­der Art­icle 19 para­graph 2 must be giv­en in full writ­ten form to the Fed­er­al Of­fice of Po­lice im­me­di­ately after they are is­sued where the in­dict­ment de­man­ded an un­sus­pen­ded cus­todi­al sen­tence.

Of­fences un­der Art­icles 20–22 that are es­tab­lished by the rel­ev­ant fed­er­al au­thor­ity in the area sub­ject to fed­er­al law en­force­ment shall be pro­sec­uted and judged by that au­thor­ity. The pro­ced­ure is gov­erned by the Fed­er­al Act of 22 March 1974¹¹¹ on Ad­min­is­trat­ive Crim­in­al Law.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion ex­er­cises over­sight over the im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Act.

² It con­ducts con­trols at the bor­der (im­port, trans­it and ex­port) and in cus­toms ware­houses and bon­ded ware­houses.

³ The Con­fed­er­a­tion and the can­tons work to­geth­er to ful­fil their tasks un­der this Act and shall co­ordin­ate their meas­ures. They may call on the as­sist­ance of oth­er or­gan­isa­tions con­cerned.

⁴ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall ap­point a spe­cial­ist com­mit­tee¹¹⁴ to ad­vise it on the is­sue of ad­dic­tion.

¹ The Fed­er­al Of­fice of Pub­lic Health shall ar­range for the sci­entif­ic eval­u­ation of the meas­ures un­der this Act. It may give the data ob­tained un­der Art­icle 3f in an­onymised form to the Fed­er­al Stat­ist­ic­al Of­fice for eval­u­ation and pub­lic­a­tion.

² On com­ple­tion of im­port­ant eval­u­ations, the Fed­er­al De­part­ment of Home Af­fairs shall sub­mit a re­port to the Fed­er­al Coun­cil and the rel­ev­ant com­mit­tees of the Fed­er­al As­sembly on the res­ults and shall sub­mit pro­pos­als for fur­ther ac­tion.

³ The Fed­er­al Of­fice of Pub­lic Health shall main­tain a doc­u­ment­a­tion, in­form­a­tion and co­ordin­a­tion of­fice.

⁴ The Agency shall sub­mit re­ports in ac­cord­ance with the in­ter­na­tion­al agree­ments.

¹ In re­la­tion to com­bat­ing un­au­thor­ised deal­ing in nar­cot­ics, the Fed­er­al Of­fice of Po­lice acts as a na­tion­al ana­lys­is, co­ordin­a­tion and in­vest­ig­a­tion agency in ac­cord­ance with the Fed­er­al Act of 7 Oc­to­ber 1994¹¹⁵ on the Cent­ral Of­fices of the Fed­er­al Crim­in­al Po­lice.

² It has the fol­low­ing tasks:

a.

It as­sists the au­thor­it­ies of oth­er states to com­bat un­au­thor­ised deal­ing in nar­cot­ics with­in the frame­work of ex­ist­ing mu­tu­al as­sist­ance reg­u­la­tions and leg­al prac­tices.

b.

It com­piles doc­u­ments that may as­sist in pre­vent­ing of­fences against this Act and fa­cil­it­ate the pro­sec­u­tion of of­fend­ers.

c.

It li­aises with:

1.

cor­res­pond­ing ser­vices in the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion (Fed­er­al Of­fice of Pub­lic Health, Dir­ect­or­ate Gen­er­al of Cus­toms);

2.¹¹⁶

Swiss Post;

3.

the Spe­cial Tasks Ser­vice (FD­JP);

4.

the can­ton­al po­lice au­thor­it­ies;

5.

the cent­ral agen­cies in oth­er coun­tries;

6.

the In­ter­na­tion­al Crim­in­al Po­lice Or­gan­isa­tion In­ter­pol.

³ Cus­toms and Bor­der Guard au­thor­it­ies shall re­port of­fences against this Act to the Fed­er­al Of­fice of Po­lice so that the in­form­a­tion can be passed on to for­eign and in­ter­na­tion­al au­thor­it­ies; they shall also in­form the can­tons.

⁴ Tak­ing evid­ence in con­nec­tion with in­ter­na­tion­al mu­tu­al as­sist­ance in crim­in­al cases re­lat­ing to nar­cot­ics is gov­erned by the rel­ev­ant pro­vi­sions of the Crim­in­al Pro­ced­ure Code of 5 Oc­to­ber 2007¹¹⁷.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall des­ig­nate a na­tion­al ref­er­ence labor­at­ory; this shall con­duct re­search, provide in­form­a­tion and co­ordin­ate in ana­lyt­ic­al, phar­ma­ceut­ic­al and clin­ic­al-phar­ma­co­lo­gic­al mat­ters in­volving nar­cot­ics and sub­stances un­der Art­icles 2, 3 para­graph 1 and 7 para­graph 3.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall des­ig­nate a na­tion­al mon­it­or­ing agency to mon­it­or the prob­lems of ad­dic­tion. This agency shall col­lect, ana­lyse and in­ter­pret stat­ist­ic­al data. It shall work with the can­tons and the in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­isa­tions.

³ The Con­fed­er­a­tion may del­eg­ate to third parties spe­cif­ic tasks of re­search, in­form­a­tion and co­ordin­a­tion and of mon­it­or­ing the prob­lems of ad­dic­tion un­der para­graphs 1 and 2.

¹ The can­tons shall is­sue the re­quired reg­u­la­tions for im­ple­ment­ing the fed­er­al law and des­ig­nate the rel­ev­ant au­thor­it­ies and of­fices re­spons­ible for:

a.

the tasks and powers in re­la­tion to pre­ven­tion, ther­apy, re­in­teg­ra­tion, harm re­duc­tion and sur­viv­al sup­port (Chapter 1a), in par­tic­u­lar to re­ceive re­ports on per­sons with ex­ist­ing or im­min­ent dis­orders as­so­ci­ated with ad­dic­tion (Art. 3c);

b.

grant­ing li­cences (Art. 3e, 14 and 14a para. 1^bis);

c.

ac­cept­ing re­ports on nar­cot­ics dis­pensed or pre­scribed for con­di­tions oth­er than those per­mit­ted (Art. 11 para. 1^bis);

d.

con­trols (Art. 16–18);

e.

pro­sec­u­tion (Art. 28) and for re­vok­ing au­thor­isa­tion to deal in nar­cot­ics (Art. 12);

f.

the su­per­vi­sion of the au­thor­it­ies and agen­cies men­tioned in let­ters a–e and of au­thor­ised li­censed treat­ment and so­cial as­sist­ance agen­cies.

² The can­tons have the power to charge fees for li­cences that they grant (Art. 3e,14 and 14a para. 1^bis) and for spe­cial rul­ings and con­trols.

³ The can­tons shall no­ti­fy the Fed­er­al De­part­ment of Home Af­fairs of their im­ple­ment­ing reg­u­la­tions.

¹ The can­ton­al gov­ern­ments shall re­port to the Fed­er­al Coun­cil reg­u­larly on the im­ple­ment­a­tion of this Act and the ob­ser­va­tions made in do­ing so, and shall provide the re­quired data (Art. 29c para. 2).

² The can­tons must no­ti­fy the Fed­er­al Of­fice of Po­lice promptly in ac­cord­ance with the pro­vi­sions of the Fed­er­al Act of 7 Oc­to­ber 1994¹¹⁸ on the Cent­ral Of­fices of the Fed­er­al Crim­in­al Po­lice of any pro­sec­u­tions ini­ti­ated due to of­fences against this Act. The rel­ev­ant in­form­a­tion shall be trans­mit­ted elec­tron­ic­ally or entered dir­ectly in the data pro­cessing sys­tems of the Fed­er­al Of­fice of Po­lice. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the de­tails.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall is­sue the re­quired im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions.

² It shall spe­cify the fees that the Agency charges for li­cences, con­trols and ser­vices. It may del­eg­ate his power to the Agency.

³ It shall spe­cify in spe­cif­ic cases the powers, the de­tailed re­quire­ments for their ex­er­cise and the meth­ods for the re­quired con­trols when grant­ing li­cences to or­gan­isa­tions, in­sti­tu­tions and au­thor­it­ies as defined in Art­icle 14a. It may if ne­ces­sary is­sue al­tern­at­ive reg­u­la­tions to the Act when reg­u­lat­ing the con­trols.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall spe­cify the date on which this Act takes ef­fect.

² On this date, the Fed­er­al Act of 2 Oc­to­ber 1924¹²³ con­cern­ing Nar­cot­ics and pro­vi­sions of fed­er­al and can­ton­al acts and or­din­ances that con­flict with this Act shall be re­pealed.

Com­mence­ment Date: 1 June 1952¹²⁴