LAUSANNE, Switzerland - A gray-haired woman in her early 60s daintily lifts small trays topped with different varieties of marijuana to her nose, sniffing each of them carefully.

"Which one would you recommend for someone with medical issues?" she asks salesman Paul Monot, co-founder of the DrGreen shop in western Switzerland.

Posters of bright green cannabis plants advertise its wares, which, like those sold openly in a growing number of shops across Switzerland, are completely legal.