• A friendly and supportive community, register today. Our forums use a separate account system.

Netherlands Dutch government presses ahead with cannabis experiment despite strong opposition

1742035517355.png
Cannabis plant with fully grown buds, ready to be harvested - Credit: BiancoBlue /DepositPhotos- License:DepositPhotos

The Dutch government is moving ahead with its regulated cannabis experiment despite significant concerns from coffeeshops, local officials, and members of the ruling coalition. As of April 7, coffeeshops in the ten participating municipalities will no longer be allowed to sell illegally sourced cannabis, marking the most substantial shift in the Netherlands’ drug policy in decades.

This transition effectively ends the long-standing gedoogbeleid, or tolerance policy
, under which coffeeshops could legally sell cannabis while relying on illegal sources for supply. Under the new system, all cannabis must come from government-approved growers. Minister of Justice and Security Van Weel said he expects the “quantity, quality, and diversity” of legally grown cannabis to be sufficient by the deadline to meet consumer demand.

However, coffeeshop owners strongly disagree. In a letter to the mayors of the participating municipalities, they warned that the transition is premature and could lead to a failed experiment. They cited supply shortages and concerns about the quality of legally produced hash, which many customers still reportedly prefer to obtain from illegal sources.

“In our view, a complete switch to legal products can only take place if every individual coffeeshop participating in the weed experiment has access to a sufficient number of different types and of good quality,” the coffeeshop owners wrote.

Despite government assurances, the concerns raised by coffeeshops are backed by data. The experiment, which began in December 2023, has faced ongoing supply chain problems. Of the ten designated cannabis growers, only seven are currently operational, with delays affecting the others. Coffeeshop owners report that while there is some diversity in the legally available products, supplies remain inconsistent, with frequent shortages and missing product categories.

“We have expressed our concerns before, but the date is getting closer, so we are sounding the alarm,” said Willem Vugs of De Achterdeur, a Tilburg-based coffeeshop association. He noted that the transition remains particularly problematic for hash, pre-rolled joints, and edibles.

Fears of increased illegal trade​

Local officials have also expressed unease about the transition, warning that the move could inadvertently drive more consumers toward the illegal market. Breda Mayor Paul Depla, one of the most vocal supporters of the cannabis experiment, acknowledged the risk.

“If there is no good supply, that is a big problem,” Depla told BN De Stem. “Then people will go shopping on the street, and that is the worst that can happen. In addition to it being illegal, we have no insight into the health effects,” he said, referencing concerns about pesticide use in unregulated cannabis.

Tilburg Mayor Theo Weterings, another key proponent of the experiment, shares these concerns. Both he and Depla were instrumental in launching the initiative, with their cities being the first to implement the experiment in December 2023. While they continue to support the program, they believe the next phase should only proceed when supply issues are resolved.

“The trial is going perfectly: more and more people are opting for legal weed, and there is less street trading. But I do not want the experiment to fail due to the lack of production,” Depla said.

The cannabis experiment was originally introduced under previous Dutch governments, spearheaded by D66. However, none of the current ruling parties support it. The PVV, in particular, has attempted multiple times to cancel the initiative. Minister Van Weel, however, argues that abandoning the program now would be a breach of trust with the participating businesses and municipalities.

“It fits within the principles of good governance and a reliable government to carry out what is included in the enacted law,” Van Weel stated.

He emphasized that ending the experiment prematurely would require new legislation and could force the government to financially compensate both growers and coffeeshops for their investments. Additionally, shutting down the program early would make it impossible to properly assess the effects of a fully regulated supply chain.

To address ongoing concerns, Van Weel has scheduled a meeting between coffeeshop owners and licensed growers at the end of March, where they will discuss supply issues and the quality of legal cannabis. The ten participating municipalities—Almere, Arnhem, Breda, Groningen, Heerlen, Voorne aan Zee, Maastricht, Nijmegen, Tilburg, and Zaanstad—are still expected to proceed with the final transition on April 7.
hash.png
 
Last edited:
This is a disaster. Looks like they going after the smaller targets first, then our "holy land" in the Randstad.
So don't put off any visits anymore, depends how aggressive they are : Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht could be done in a few years. 💔
 
Last edited:
Never been over there, I best get a move on! Only tempted for the landrace original hashes if any exist over there still. Mind you can't really bring hash back, might be better investigating the DW another thing I have never done!
 
Never been over there, I best get a move on! Only tempted for the landrace original hashes if any exist over there still. Mind you can't really bring hash back, might be better investigating the DW another thing I have never done!
Do it. Also I'm not sure but after the coffeeshops they might go after the remaining independents so I guess export seeds + everything will be severely impacted. It looks like the usual - the powerful legal criminals going after tiny ones in comparison.
 
Big Business obliterating independents, a land grab, which happened across the world 2020-2022.
 
Big Business obliterating independents, a land grab, which happened across the world 2020-2022.
And continues in 2025, watch the farmland land grab for the next 4 years! Bill Gates and China are buying up all for sale farmland, UK govt makes it easy for them deliberately. Nothing makes sense anymore.
 
Oh makes sense to me, this is, lets say the worlds worst (gates face is public so relative to his boss low level). These particularly heinous **nts - have ancestry that dates back to biblical times, are no longer happy with the world, they want all of us too. I suspect they have plans, that don't include 99.999999% of the population.
 
Oh makes sense to me, this is, lets say the worlds worst (gates face is public so relative to his boss low level). These particularly heinous **nts - have ancestry that dates back to biblical times, are no longer happy with the world, they want all of us too. I suspect they have plans, that don't include 99.999999% of the population.
That's what I have been suspecting for the last few years, there is much evidence from davos speeches to covid.

But now other things are coming to light, that may also lead to a 99.99999% extinction which would also explain the actions of the elite.

What if there was a pole shift in a few years, that would lead to tectonic and volcanic mayhem and they knew the date? There is a pole shift cycle, it’s happened before, now look at what is going on: the elite taking all the money, the elite making a AI city in Saudi with no access on one of the predicted safest places when plate shifts occur. Bezos, zucker and many others making deep billion dollar bunkers midcontinent plates, and the icing on the cake Musk taking mankind’s knowledge to mars for safe keeping until the earth starts recovering in a few hundred years. Of course if the date became public knowledge then society would collapse overnight, the work would stop instantly, panic, starvation, chaos, so they need to fully control us until the event: lockdown training, thought police, monitoring of all IT, cctv nationwide, locking anyone up who speaks out, oh wait….

And I wonder why I get anxious, depressed, and generally fucked up at times.

Oh you want the date: I don’t know, 2032 and 2050 are both muted around the net.
 
And Dear @Moon mate and reader, its oddly only people who have been through some kind of trauma who can see this or even think to suspect it. They have been at war with us since we were born, but don't lose hope because a) thats what they want and b) They use the Phoenix symbol and good researchers have shown the phoenix has and does get burnt (think Romes elite guards turning on them) I think their taking too much, too quickly so hopefully fire time for them. Again.
 
Last edited:
And I wonder why I get anxious, depressed, and generally fucked up at times.

Oh you want the date: I don’t know, 2032 and 2050 are both muted around the net.
Yeah completely. I'm not stressing about their alleged timescales bc its prob more bollox again, but years/dates are actually signals of great significance to them, coming up are more likely 2027 (9), 2029 (11) and 2033 (33).
 
I'm still in shock, I know I shouldn't be really about this - just they are actually doing this. In Amsterdam, they are also carrying a huge re-gentrification project in the red light with a plan to relocate the sex workers to a "erotic zone" outside the city. So another land grab.
 
Back
Top