Cannabis grower Fred van de Wiel from Waalwijk can finally sell his weed legally after a year and a half. The cannabis test will start on Friday at all coffee shops in Breda and Tilburg. In the Omroep Brabant program KRAAK. he almost becomes emotional when he talks about the project.
Cannabis has been tolerated in the Netherlands since the 1970s. Entrepreneurs are allowed to sell it, but they are not allowed to purchase it. This creates the famous illegal backdoor construction. To get rid of this, the Rutte cabinet decided in 2017 to start an experiment with the sale of legal cannabis grown in the Netherlands. That test will finally start on Friday and Van de Wiel is very happy with that.
“Hopefully it will be black instead of red.”
He spent a year and a half growing cannabis in a special warehouse. “That wait is terrible. You have something that is ready, into which you have put your heart and soul, and then it takes another year and a half before you can start,” says the Waalwijk entrepreneur. “And all this time not a cent came in, but we will start on Friday. Hopefully it will be black instead of red.”
Van de Wiel ended up in cannabis by chance. “I was a shoe dealer in Waalwijk. I got into this through someone else. I looked into it and saw what was and wasn’t possible. I don’t have green fingers either.”
Apparently he doesn’t need that to fill a warehouse with cannabis plants. He almost becomes emotional when he sees images of one of his breeding cells. “You’ve been working on it for so long and now we are proud that we have been able to achieve this.”
“People want to know where something comes from.”
The big difference between legal and illegal weed is the quality mark. The packaging states exactly what it contains. “It’s nice that people now know where it comes from and that it is good, pure cannabis. People want to know where something comes from. Whether you smoke it, eat it or drink it. The chain is transparent.” The entrepreneur wants legal weed so that he can enter a normal business world: “It will be so much better once you get rid of that scary back door.”
The entrepreneur is not afraid of competition from the underworld. “I haven’t noticed anything yet, that market is so big.” He hasn’t had a horse’s head in the garden yet. The test will run throughout Breda and Tilburg. Van de Wiel will supply nineteen coffee shops. “It is the start of a bit of regulation of the entire coffee shop world. Now it is only beginning, as far as I am concerned and we are still going to encounter some things. But I have confidence in it and I am looking forward to it,” said an enthusiastic Van de Wiel.
You can see everything about the cannabis test in this episode of ‘How..?’
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