In the Netherlands we can get weed in the coffee shop, but growing and transporting weed is still illegal. This may soon come to an end, with the official start of the weed experiment. In episode 1 of the Omroep Brabant Podcast ‘Via De Voorneur’, drug historian Arjan Nuijten takes us back in time: because how do we actually come to this unique tolerance policy?
As a little boy, Arjan grew up in Hoeven. “A village near the ‘drug village’ at that time, Sint Willebrord. I remember that there were always wrong -looking types in the parking lot at the football association that were drugs. Those were scary people to see as a child.”
In his student days, Arjan moved to Utrecht. “My roommates were quite normal, but occasionally they blow or took a pill. Then I thought to myself:” This is not at all that scary world of those harsh types. ”
And that contrast has always fascinated him since. This world continued to fascinate him, because Nuijten has since been promoted as a drug historian at the University of Amsterdam and knows everything about local drug policy.
The Netherlands has a rich history when it comes to drug policy. We can buy weed in our little country in the coffee shop, but nobody is allowed to renovate or transport weed. The coffee shops are therefore supplied via the ‘back door’ and there is an illegal world behind this.
“Since 1928, cannabis has been on the opium list and from 1953 it is really forbidden to use cannabis. But at that time the use of cannabis is increasing more and more.” Arjan knows stories that you could be picked up in the 1950s with just a few joints in your pocket.
Do you want to know more about the unique tolerance policy and get a glimpse into the illegal weed sector? Then listen to the podcast ‘via the front door’ below, via your favorite podcast app or go to Omroepbrabant.nl/podcast.
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At one point so many people were arrested that the police could no longer handle it. According to Arjan, in the 1970s there is more and more idea that cannabis use should not be tackled so strictly.
Dries van Agt from Geldrop was then the Minister of Justice. “The minister was quite progressive for that time. Then the idea of perhaps we should legalize cannabis. But because of international treaties that was not possible.”
“How can you use weed without having it?”
That is why it was then decided to decriminalize the first. “That it is no longer a crime for the law, but at most a violation if you have weed with you. And that the use of cannabis is no longer prohibited.”
This made the tolerance policy born in 1976. “But yes, how can you use weed without having it?” When the tolerance policy was devised, there was no weed production in the Netherlands yet. But that changed. “Then it became increasingly important to regulate that back door, because it was no longer something we imported from abroad, but a whole Dutch weed industry arose.”
“The tolerance policy was a compromise.”
It was also unclear whether or not you could start a store where you sold weed. The coffee shop policy is a gray twilight area between 1990 and 1995 and there are more and more coffee shops. “It is not until 1995 that there will be clarity that the coffee shop, as we know it, may exist officially.”
“The tolerance policy was a compromise from all sides.” There were ideas about legalizing cannabis, but Dutch politicians did not dare to take that step according to Arjan. “At that time, the Netherlands was at the forefront and we were a guide country. But we did not go through and we have been tolerating for forty years now.”
The weed experiment
In 2025, the tolerance policy is still in force. But the weed experiment may change that. Since December 2023, legal cannabis has been sold in coffee shops in Breda and Tilburg in addition to tolerated cannabis. This is part of the weed experiment, or as the government calls it the ‘experiment closed coffee shop chain’.
The aim of the experiment is to investigate whether it is possible to legally grow, transport and sell cannabis. Ten growers have been designated who can legally grow weed and deliver to the coffee shops in the experimentation municipalities. In June 2024, eight more experimenting municipalities were added next to Breda and Tilburg.
From 7 April this year, the coffee shops in the experimentation municipalities can only sell legal cannabis. But coffee shop holders doubt whether there is enough legal offer. A number of them therefore wrote a fire letter to the mayors.
