Breda and Tilburg kicked off the legalization of cannabis in Holland. The pilot project, called “Experiment gesloten coffeeshopketen”: the experiment to close the circle in coffeeshops, will last 4 years and involve 10 cities.
But isn't cannabis already legal in the Netherlands? Not exactly. And this is the peculiarity of the program that has just started, which wants to study the effects of legalization on consumer health.
Cannabis in Holland: legalization in 10 cities
“It is a historic moment: for years I have been saying that the policy of tolerance has failed and today we are finally doing so a step towards legalization. I look forward to this experiment within an experiment because we have the space to discover together what works, what needs to be improved and certainly what the consumer thinks of regulated products. Finally progress,” underlined Theo Weterings.
In fact, cannabis has been sold in the country for over 50 years tolerated, it had never been regulated production, which was done illegally. Inconsistency referred to by locals as the "backdoor problem", which recognized the "legality" of the substance only when it arrived in coffee shops, as if it appeared out of nowhere.
How reported by the local press, at the first delivery of regulated cannabis, which took place in Breda with the system specially developed track&trace, the minister also participated Kuipers, together with the mayors Theo Weterings of Tilburg and Paul Depla of Breda.
Alla experimental legalization 10 Dutch cities will participate, including the capital district Amsterdam-Oost. And in this transition phase, given the extremely unlimited number of official cultivators, three for now: Fyta Group, Canadelaar and Aardachtig, the selected coffee shops "will be able to offer both legally grown and tolerated products", as long as the quantity and quality of the cannabis produced can sufficiently supply them all.
