In the current regulations, selling weed is regulated through a (tolerated) licensing system, but growing weed is not. This leads to the strange situation that coffee shop owners are not punished for selling weed, but growers of the same weed are. Government and the judiciary have been struggling with this well-known 'backdoor problem' for years. Legally, it is not tenable either. There are already several court rulings in which judges have not imposed a punitive or (disqualifying) measure -for example, if a grower has paid his electricity costs and taxes. Under the current tolerance policy, the weed will still have to come from somewhere. Then just through a grower who pays the bills.
The government now wants to see if the chain can be decriminalised by legally regulating cultivation - under strict conditions. However, the government does not want to change course overnight and has decided to start with an experiment, in which growers will be allowed to apply to grow weed with impunity. Coffeeshop owners will then only be allowed to purchase cannabis from growers designated by the government. This 'weed experiment' is detailed in the (draft!) Decree on the Experiment in Closed Coffeeshop Chains (further: the Decree). A maximum of ten growers and ten municipalities will be allowed to participate. Ten participating municipalities are currently still being sought. Last June, the municipality of Hoorn applied, but many municipalities are still hesitating because of the strict conditions. The aim is for this decision to take effect from 1 January 2020. However, this date is unlikely to be met. Partly because 10 municipalities have still not signed up.
When eventually 10 municipalities have applied for the experiment and the decree has actually come into force, the government will open an application period (as yet unknown) during which growers can apply to be designated as growers to grow and supply cannabis to coffee shops within the cannabis experiment. After the application period closes, the government will proceed to a selection. Applicants must submit a VOG, an integrity (BIBOB) investigation will follow and a business plan must be submitted. Among other things, that business plan should set out how production will take place and how it will be secured, how waste will be handled, how transport will be provided and there should be a financial plan. In autumn 2019, certain regulations will be laid down in more detail, for example on packaging and the use of crop protection agents. The government may also use a lottery when selecting growers.
Investors will not only have to find a suitable grower, a decent start-up capital will also have to be available. In the experiment, it is expected that a total of about 54 coffee shops will be supplied. The explanatory note to the draft decision assumes one weekly transport per grower. Costs will have to be incurred for e.g. salary and training costs of personnel, security of cultivation sites and transport. The experiment will last at least four years. After that, a bill on the closed coffeeshop chain will have to be passed by the second chamber. In politics, there is still a lot of resistance to regulation of cannabis cultivation, but there seems to be no turning back. Especially because of developments abroad, such as in Canada, where cannabis cultivation is as regulated. The SP has even already raised the possibility of regulating XTC! If the cannabis experiment is a success, that could well be the next step....
D.M. Penn