Cannabis cigarettes are being sold legally at this supermarket chain
Helena Bachmann, Special for USA TODAY
GENEVA — Natalia Ferrera is in high spirits — literally. Standing in front of a Coop supermarket in the city’s Eaux-Vives section, she is smoking a cigarette and enjoying a buzz.
Ferrera’s cigarette has a distinctly musky scent because in addition to tobacco, it contains hemp and cannabidiol (CBD), one of the active ingredients in the cannabis plant that is the source of marijuana. And this may be the only place in the world where you can get it at a supermarket.
“It tastes like a real joint,” Ferrera, 20, said, adding that she wanted to try the cigarette “out of curiosity.”
She purchased a pack, marketed under the name Heimat, legally at Coop, one of Switzerland’s largest supermarket chains. It will launch the product in 700 stores nationwide on July 24. But some branches, like the one in Eaux-Vives, are already selling it.
While several U.S. producers in states with legalized marijuana offer pre-rolled cannabis joints, they are sold in specialized outlets. Heimat, on the other hand, is the “first and only cigarette containing cannabis that is sold in a regular supermarket,” according to its Swiss manufacturers, Koch & Gsell.