![\"Cannabis](\"https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Cannabisswisspic.jpg\")
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For centuries, Switzerland has led the way when it comes to what we now call \u201cwellness,\u201d\u00a0peddling the healing powers of crisp Alpine air, clear blue skies, and fine Swiss botanicals.<\/p>\n
In the 1800s,\u00a0Alexander Spengler, a German refugee working as a country doctor in the remote hamlet of Davos, developed a spa where victims of tuberculosis were prescribed walks in the brisk mountain air, marmot-fat chest rubs, and frigid showers.<\/p>\n
At the turn of last century,\u00a0Maximilian Oskar Bircher-Benner\u00a0fought disease with a raw-food diet, giving rise to Switzerland\u2019s still-popular version of overnight oats,\u00a0Bircher Muesli.<\/p>\n
And of course Johanna Spyri\u2019s children\u2019s book of the same era depicted a little girl,\u00a0Heidi, whose illness was healed by Swiss herbs and mountain air.<\/p>\n
Today, those healing herbs might well include cannabis.<\/p>\n
Cannabidiol\u2014the non-psychotropic chemical compound of cannabis that\u2019s\u00a0also known as CBD\u2014is catching on in the now-global wellness community as a treatment for anxiety, joint pain, PTSD, menstrual cramps, insomnia, nausea, seizures, inflammation, and more.<\/p>\n
In Switzerland\u2019s cities, the stuff has quickly become ubiquitous\u2014standard fare in pharmacies, convenience stores, and a new crop of dispensaries. Unlike THC, the most famous of cannabinoids for its ability to get us high, CBD promises mental and physical benefits without the giggles, paranoia, or couch-lock.<\/p>\n
In downtown Zurich, a convenience store advertises Swiss cannabis, hemp foods, and pre-rolled joints.<\/p>\n
Beside the cash register at a nearby pharmacy, a display bearing a photograph of a white-haired man wearing a placid smile in a field of marijuana contains CBD-enhanced moisturizer, and glass dropper bottles of tinctures that a pharmacist reports are popular with older customers who suffer from joint pain.<\/p>\n
In 2011, a new Swiss law made room for the sale of cannabis containing less than 1% THC.<\/p>\n
By way of comparison, the popular marijuana strain\u00a0Blue Dream\u00a0contains around 20% THC.<\/p>\n
And in the last couple years, businesses selling this type of marijuana with only extremely light psychotropic effects\u00a0have been multiplying.<\/p>\n
There were just five registered companies in Switzerland manufacturing or trading CBD in January 2017, according to the Swiss newspaper\u00a0Tages-Anzeiger.<\/p>\n
Eleven months later there were 410, estimated to bring in about CHF 60 million\u00a0<\/b>(about $62 million) for the year.<\/p>\n
Swiss adaption has been quick, and now tourists are starting to catch on too, says\u00a0Ramin Stricker, a shopkeeper at Marry Jane, a second-story shop in Zurich\u2019s cobblestoned Old Town. \u201cWhen we opened the store, nobody from the US knew what CBD was,\u201d he says. \u201cNow after six months, every second person knows.\u201d<\/p>\n
With a well-lit, white-walled space and a sign outside advertising \u201cfinest Swiss cannabis,\u201d Marry Jane looks like a smaller version of the dispensaries now commonplace in US states like California and Oregon, where marijuana is now legal for recreational use.<\/p>\n
But in Zurich, none of the cannabis flowers, pre-rolled joints, baked goods, tinctures, salves, or soft drinks will get you particularly high.<\/p>\n
Instead, strains such as White Widow and Super Silver Haze are marketed by their varying percentages of CBD.<\/p>\n