High time: after five years, Dutch start legal cannabis trial
Despite the anti-legalisation party PVV gaining significant power in the recent election, Kuipers is not worried about interference with the experiment
Friday, December 15, 2023
The Netherlands’ legal weed experiment kicked off in Breda and Tilburg, with Europe’s first ever licensed and controlled cannabis arriving in city coffeeshops. Health minister Ernst Kuipers joined Breda’s mayor Paul Delpa and Tilburg’s mayor Theo Weterings in coffeeshop De Baron in Breda to unpack the first box and scan the first barcodes in a low key, early morning launch. If successful, the decades old gedoog policy of tolerance, which Delpa brands “devious”, will end and smokers will now know exactly where and how their weed was produced, under strict government control. (See also: Shops in 2 Dutch cities start selling legally grown cannabis in an experiment to regulate pot trade)