Analysis of the General decision of the Swiss Chemicals Notification Authority concerning the placing on the market of perfume oil containing CBD
March 24th 2022 – General decision of the Swiss Chemicals Notification Authority concerning the placing on the market of fragrances / perfume oil containing CBD, pursuant to Art. 10 (1) and (2) in connection with Art. 1 (1) to (3) of the Pest Control Products Act.
A Federal decision on banning CBD from fragrances (chemical product classification) unless denaturing was used to discourage oral use, was announced on March 24th 2022. This announcement came into force on March 2022 with a 6 months delay for products already on the market (an immediate ban would have been expected if the often used argument on health and safety is relevant).
This decision is the latest action pushed by the Swiss chemists’ association to remove CBD from the nonmedical categories so that the recommendations of swissmedic on medical cannabis can be fully applied in Switzerland. Companies opposing this decision have 30 days to appeal this surprise announcement, which was not put out for consultation, as most regulatory changes are. We can expect that some companies still want to offer a nonmedical option, although the category to put such product on the market is today missing.
Although only CBD is concerned by the text (the use of “cannabinoids” would have been expected as there is more than just CBD in Cannabis), the indication of the use of a denaturing substance probably widely limits the future classification of cannabis related products in the fragrance category. Once denaturing is being used, products can no longer be consumed orally.
In conclusion, customer’s choices are being mainly limited to importing CBD oil from abroad or forced to get a medical prescription in order to obtain the required product from a pharmacy; which delivers products complying with the medical production standards.
Link in [DE] : https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/fga/2022/668/de
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