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An estimated 3 Billion Swiss Francs ($2.9 Billion) is spent on the black market in Switzerland on illegal drugs.

Source:  Chantal Collin, “Switzerland’s Drug Policy,” Prepared for the Senate Special Committee On Illegal Drugs, Library of Parliment, January 14, 2002. Section D, Part 2.

Price is in US Dollars and represents the typical price of Marijuana in Europe.

Source:  UNODC, “World Drug Report 2009: Section 3.4 Prices, pages 215 to 234,” June 2009.

Price is in US Dollars and represents the typical price of Cocaine in Europe.

Source: UNODC, “World Drug Report 2009: Section 3.4 Prices, pages 215 to 234,” June 2009.

Price is in US Dollars and represents the typical price of Ecstasy in Europe.

Source: UNODC, “World Drug Report 2009: Section 3.4 Prices, pages 215 to 234,” June 2009.

Price is in US Dollars and represent the typical price of Heroin in Europe

Source: UNODC, “World Drug Report 2009: Section 3.4 Prices, pages 215 to 234,” June 2009.

From the AP (via Yahoo News):

The world’s most comprehensive legalized heroin program became permanent Sunday with overwhelming approval from Swiss voters who simultaneously rejected the decriminalization of marijuana.

The heroin program, started in 1994, is offered in 23 centers across Switzerland. It has helped eliminate scenes of large groups of drug users shooting up openly in parks that marred Swiss cities in the 1980s and 1990s and is credited with reducing crime and improving the health and daily lives of addicts.

The nearly 1,300 selected addicts, who have been unhelped by other therapies, visit one of the centers twice a day to receive the carefully measured dose of heroin produced by a government-approved laboratory.

Swiss Authorities are charging 10 people in laundering over $1 billion in a Mafia controlled cigarette smuggling ring.

From the AP (via the Seattle Times):

Switzerland’s top prosecutor charged 10 people with laundering more than $1 billion dollars during a decade-long mafia cigarette smuggling operation, Swiss authorities said Monday.

The defendants – five Swiss, three Italians, a Spaniard and a Frenchman – are accused of having used Switzerland as a hub for laundering money from Italy’s powerful Camorra and Sacra Corona Unita organizations, the office of the Federal Prosecutor said.

They were also charged with supporting or participating in a criminal organization.

The defendants were not identified because of Switzerland’s privacy laws.

Earlier, however, attorneys for three of the defendants in the southern, Italian-speaking canton (state) of Ticino identified them as Fredi Bossert, owner of a money exchange business; financier Franco Della Torre; and his Italian colleague, Michele Antonio Varano.

The 10 are accused of having laundered well in excess of $1 billion in Ticino from the early 1990s until 2001, the prosecutor’s office said.

Source: Swissinfo, “Campaign targets fake products,”swissinfo.org, January 16, 2007.

Custom Agents in Switzerland will soon be starting to crack down on tourists who are carrying counterfeit products.

From the VOA:

The head of legal services at the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property, Juerg Herren, tells VOA people should not think that buying fake goods is just a petty crime. He calls it a serious matter, which must be discouraged. He says the new law, which comes into effect July 1, closes a loophole that allows individuals to enter the country with fake goods they buy for themselves.

“Customs will be able to seize infringing goods carried by private people for their personal use only. So, that means even if the goods in question are not intended for resale, customs can seize these goods,” said Herren.

Herren says pirated goods are a growth industry. He says those most sought after by tourists include textiles, handbags, watches and shoes. But, he says virtually everything gets counterfeited today. No sector is spared. He says it is difficult, if not impossible, to stamp out this trade, but that efforts must be made.

“Of course, we are perfectly aware that it will not be possible to screen everybody coming into Switzerland. This is not the purpose of the new law,” he said. “The purpose is rather to have a consistent message also to our own nationals that counterfeiting is a big problem and very detrimental. So, it is all about this and we are perfectly aware that customs will only act if they happen to stumble across a product that is fake.”

Herren does not consider this a draconian law.

“The only thing that customs can do is seize the watch. So, what you lose is actually the fake product and I don’t think it is a right to have a fake product. But, there will be no fines and there will be no prison term, of course. There will be no criminalizing of private people,” said Herren.