Legal Cannabis cultivation pilot set to begin on Friday

The Netherlands’ long-awaited experiment with regulated cannabis cultivation starts in Tilburg and Breda on Friday. Coffeeshops in these two municipalities will be the first to sell weed that was legally grown and is required to meet certain quality standards.

During this startup phase of the experiment, coffeeshops in Tilburg and Breda can sell both legal cannabis and weed bought under the tolerance policy. That is because only two legal growers are ready to supply the coffeeshops - not enough to meet their demand. In September, the government expected that another two growers would be ready to supply the Tilburg and Breda coffeeshops from February 2024.

Responsible Ministers Ernst Kuipers of Public Health and Dilan Yeşilgöz of Justice and Security said that this small start to the “closed coffeeshop chain” experiment will allow them to iron out any wrinkles and make the necessary adjustments for the transition phase - when the coffeeshops in eight other municipalities and later in Amsterdam Zuidoost will join the experiment. The start-up phase will last a maximum of six months.

Under the Netherlands’ current tolerance policy, coffeeshops are allowed to sell cannabis to customers, but buying it from suppliers is illegal. Cultivating cannabis is also prohibited. Coffeeshops, therefore, supply themselves through the “back door,” buying cannabis from illegal growers while the authorities look the other way.

The closed coffeeshop chain experiment is to see whether the entire cannabis chain can be regulated. The upside is that everything will happen above board, and the cannabis sold in coffeeshops will be subject to quality requirements, so the coffeeshops and their customers know exactly what they’re getting. The downside is that the growers who have been selling to Dutch coffeeshops through the backdoor for years will likely not be pleased by the new arrangement.

One of the legal growers - Hollandse Hoogte - set up their farm at a secret location in the southernmost tip of the Netherlands. The site is secret due to the complexity of the transition from the tolerance policy to regulated cannabis.

Getting the farm set up with cannabis cuttings happened in what looked like an undercover military operation. The transport occurred in absolute secrecy due to the effectively illegal nature of the transport - preparing the cuttings and transporting them aren’t allowed under the current tolerance policy, the farm owner explained in a press release. “Upon arrival at the legal cultivation location, the historic moment, the transition from illegal to legal, was celebrated with champaign.”

The experiment will last four years, with an option to extend it by another 1.5 years. During this time, 90 coffeeshops will sell legally grown cannabis from 10 licensed growers. The results will determine whether full legalization of cannabis is possible.