News item | 15-09-2023 | 2:30 PM
The cabinet has decided that the start-up phase of the closed coffee shop chain experiment will start on December 15, 2023. The most recent planning shows that two legal growers are expected to be ready for delivery to coffee shops in the fourth quarter of 2023. This is sufficient to start the start-up phase of the experiment in Breda and Tilburg. In this phase, participating coffee shops from these municipalities may offer both legally grown and tolerated products. The next two growers are expected to start supplying coffee shops in Breda and Tilburg in February 2024.
The initiative for the start-up phase was introduced by the mayors of Breda and Tilburg and embraced by Minister Ernst Kuipers of Health, Welfare and Sport and Minister Yeşilgöz-Zegerius of Justice and Security as an opportunity to start the experiment on a small scale around a legalized production and sales chain. This way, experience can be gained with the closed chain and all the processes that come with it. Developments during the start-up phase are monitored. If public order or safety is seriously threatened, the start-up phase will be stopped prematurely. The insights will be shared with all participating municipalities and used to improve processes and systems for a smooth transition phase.
Start of the transition phase
The aim is for the start-up phase to last a maximum of six months. This is followed by a transition phase. It is expected that all participating municipalities will be able to start the transition phase at the earliest at the end of the first quarter of 2024. In this transition phase, coffee shops in the participating municipalities may offer regulated products in addition to tolerated products. The growers’ planning is currently too uncertain to provide more clarity about the actual start of the transition phase. Ministers Kuipers and Yeşilgöz-Zegerius will inform the House of Representatives about this at a later date. Six weeks after the start of the transition phase is the start of the actual experimental phase. From that moment on, participating coffee shop owners may only sell regulated cannabis.
Participation in the Amsterdam district
The possibility of an eleventh municipality participating in the experiment was discussed earlier. Mayor Halsema of Amsterdam has nominated the East district for this purpose. The Ministries of Health, Welfare and Sport and JenV are investigating this nomination and are conducting discussions to further elaborate this. To enable the eleventh city to participate, the Act and the Closed Coffee Shop Chain Experiment Decree must be amended. The bill for this is in the House of Representatives for consideration.