The municipality of Amsterdam is hoping to participate in a cannabis cultivation legalisation trial. As part of this, a district in the capital will make it legal for coffeeshops to grow cannabis on a trial basis.
The municipality is already investigating which district can participate, and Mayor Femke Halsema has informed the government of this. The municipality aims to designate a district in May, Het Parool reports.
The front/back door twist
As you probably already know, there are already plenty of coffeeshops that sell soft drugs like marijuana to their customers in Amsterdam.
This means it’s legal to buy and sell pre-rolled joints at the “front door.” However, in the Netherlands, coffeeshops are actually prohibited from receiving their merchandise at the back door.
READ MORE: 7 practical questions about smoking weed in Amsterdam, answered
So you can buy it and sell it, but we don’t want to know how it got there! 👀
Why not cultivate?
You might think that this system doesn’t make any sense, and you would be completely right. The goal of participating in the cannabis cultivation legalisation trial is to find a legal way for coffeeshops to receive and sell their products.
A few problems to overcome
Initially, in order for the trial to proceed, all coffee shops in the municipality of Amsterdam had to agree to the experiment’s rules.
However, in the city of Amsterdam, this was deemed unfeasible. Instead, the municipality suggested that a district would be more suitable in terms of scale and population.
Amsterdam now plans to discuss possible participation with the districts and the coffeeshop industry.
READ MORE: Believe it or not, smoking weed in Amsterdam’s city centre is about to be banned
Currently, discussions are ongoing with the Ministry of Justice and Security, and the Ministry of Health, Welfare, and Sport about “further elaboration” — whatever that may entail. 👀
What do you think of the cultivation legalisation trial? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!