A customer came to see me last week, a bit panicked. He'd smoked a CBD flower the evening before, was stopped the next morning on the Grandson road, and the saliva test came back positive. "But what I smoke is legal!" he told me. He was right on one point and wrong on another – and that's exactly what catches most people out.
In Switzerland, CBD is allowed up to 1% THC. That's the law, and our products respect it. The problem is that road law doesn't look at the THC percentage in your product. It looks at what's left in your blood. And the limit set by the Swiss authorities is 1.5 micrograms of THC per litre of blood. In other words, practically zero. Even a legal flower at 0.8% THC can leave enough traces to exceed this limit, especially if you use it regularly or in large amounts.
In practice, if the police stop you and the saliva test is positive, they can ask for a blood test. If the result exceeds 1.5 µg/l, you're considered unfit to drive, full stop – even though your product was perfectly legal to buy. The penalty follows: a fine, sometimes a custodial sentence, and losing your licence for at least three months.
"It's the kind of thing I'd rather say clearly than let people learn at the police station," says Cyril, founder of Tiny Green. "We sell legal CBD, but legal to buy doesn't mean risk-free behind the wheel. They're two different laws that don't talk to each other."
The good news is there are solutions if you need to drive regularly. Oils and capsules made from CBD isolate, with no trace of THC, don't pose this problem. That's precisely why we offer them in the shop to those who tell us they have to drive every day. Flower and resin, however, always contain a little THC, however tiny, and remain detectable for several hours – sometimes several days – after use depending on your metabolism.
If you have doubts about a specific product, ask us in the shop in Yverdon-les-Bains. We'll tell you straight which is guaranteed 0% THC and which isn't. On this subject, it's better to ask before than after.
