Baar,19.09.2017

51-year-old woman fined for smoking legal hemp cigarette

A woman from Baar has been fined for having smoked a legal hemp cigarette which police took for a joint.
 
The incident happened a week last Saturday after Karin Fischer (second photograph) had finished work at the BBQ restaurant on Bahnhofstrasse and gone on a walk to nearby Martinspark and round the station, near an area where occasionally down-and-outs hang around. “The police officers saw me smoking and came to the wrong conclusion,” she said. “I am not angry with them personally. I realise they were only doing their job,” adding however, that she had expected a little more understanding.
 
The 51-year-old explained that she smokes these hemp cigarettes (which only contain cannabidiol (CBD) and not the illegal tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)), as they bring her relief from restless legs syndrome, which she suffers from. “And they work very quickly. The unpleasant sensation I get in my legs goes after only two minutes,” she said.
 
One problem for the police is that these legal hemp cigarettes, which Fischer bought from the Coop the day before, smell just like real joints. One differentiation is that these legal hemp cigarettes, sold under the name Heimat, have this brand name printed on the filter, for the very purpose that they can be distinguished from real joints.
 
Police spokesman Frank Kleiner said that officers had been informed about these legal hemp cigarettes and went on to say that a method had been developed for use on the spot whereby they could could be distinguished from joints but this was still in a test phase. “Had the police had this at the time, it would have been easier, quicker and less expensive for all concerned,” he said.
 
Fischer has since appealed against the fine, saying that it was unfair and pointing out that she had never smoked a joint in her life.
 
When asked what advice the police would give to people who smoke legal hemp cigarettes, Kleiner said products such as these, which fulfil legal requirements, were able to be freely bought and sold in the canton. However, he also cited advice from the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health, which warns those who smoke them not to drive or be in charge of any other vehicle immediately afterwards.
 
Just as the police cannot tell joints from hemp cigarettes just by smelling them, neither can managers of bars, of course. Hence a journalist of the Zuger Zeitung enquired how they would deal with people smoking these “Hanfzigis”, as they are known.
 
Derren O’Healey, who runs the Mantra bar near Zug station, said, “If we were very busy and had no time to ask if other guests were disturbed by the smell, we would ask the smoker in question to desist, even if we were not sure whether it was a real joint or a hemp cigarette. However, if there were not so many guests and no one had complained about the smell, then we would not intervene.”
 
As for Jonny Azizi, who runs the Plaza on Postplatz, he said that on two occasions guests had smoked these hemp cigarettes and he had asked them to refrain from doing so, otherwise they would be asked to leave. And this they accepted. He himself is a non-smoker and finds the smell of these hemp cigarettes even worse than normal joints.
 
The question remains, of course, as to whether anyone has the right to ban the smoking of such legal cigarettes in places where smoking is otherwise allowed.