Dutch officials have announced a three-phase “experiment” to legally supply the Netherlands’ cannabis coffee shops with products. The plan, first discussed in Oct. 2017, is expected to reign in the illicit market, the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction reports.
The three phases:
- Preparation: designating cultivators and establishing a research consortium.
- Experiment: a four-year period of the cultivators producing cannabis for and delivering products to coffee shops.
- Completion: restoring the situation back to how it currently operates over a six-month period.
Dutch officials expect to have named an independent advisory committee by the end of May to help determine how the cannabis will be cultivated, how the program will be monitored and enforced, and give the criteria to the municipalities where the experiment will occur – those municipalities will be determined by the end of the summer.
Last year, Dutch lawmakers introduced legislation to legalize cannabis cultivation in The Netherlands but the measure did not succeed. Contrary to popular belief, cannabis is not legal in The Netherlands, but tolerated; however, the nation’s drug policy prosecution guidelines allow individuals to possess up to 5 grams, grow up to five plants, and allow coffee shops to store up to 500 grams at a time.