The cabinet wants to introduce a so-called weed experiment early next year, but participating cannabis growers say that is not feasible. This is apparent from a letter that nine of the ten participating growers sent to Minister Ernst Kuipers (Public Health, D66) and Minister Dilan Yesilgöz (Justice and Security), VVD), and from conversations with those directly involved.
Last March, the ministers postponed the experiment, which should have started in 2021, to the second quarter of 2023. The growers do not think that estimate is realistic and think that it will last at least until the fourth quarter of 2023.
This month it has been five years since the cannabis experiment was included in the coalition agreement of the Rutte cabinet. The government wants to use the trial to test whether cannabis can be legalized in the Netherlands. The aim of the experiment is to regulate the sale of weed, so that the illegal supply of cannabis through the back door of coffee shops disappears. Now there is a policy of tolerance: buying and selling cannabis in coffee shops is allowed, but growing and selling it to coffee shops is not allowed. When the experiment starts, ten selected growers will legally grow cannabis for four years for coffee shops in ten Dutch municipalities: Arnhem, Almere, Breda, Groningen, Heerlen, Hellevoetsluis, Maastricht, Nijmegen, Tilburg and Zaanstad.
But issues that previously caused delays have not yet been resolved. For example, some of the growers have not yet managed to open a bank account. In their letter, the growers call on the ministers to help with this. They had already made that call before.
The growers also write about new problems they are encountering, such as high energy prices and increased prices and long delivery times of building materials. They also experience problems with track&trace system that the government has created for the experiment. Growers have to register, for example, how much they produce and to which coffee shops they sell.
The letter that NRC was sent to Kuipers and Yesilgöz last June. Growers tell NRC that they lack government control and would like to be helped more where possible. The government would be mainly concerned with rigidly following the rules of the experiment.
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In a response to NRC, the Ministry of Health (VWS) and the Ministry of Justice and Security (JenV) write that they are in talks with growers and a bank, together with the Ministry of Finance, about providing bank accounts. However, according to VWS and JenV, this does not guarantee that these growers will actually receive a bank account. The ministries also write that they criticize the track&trace system don’t share. A user test would have shown that the system ‘works and is accessible’.
In December they will inform the House of Representatives about the further planning of the experiment. It is then also assessed whether it indeed needs to be postponed further or can start earlier. Furthermore, VWS and JenV state that they are ‘flexible and proactive where possible’. But also that they cannot deviate from the rules of the experiment, because these are laid down in legislation and regulations.
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of October 27, 2022