Legal Cannabis Cultivation Could Be Finally Coming to Amsterdam

Cannabis has been legally sold at Amsterdam’s “coffee shops” since 1976. The commercial cultivation of cannabis, however, has never been regulated in the Netherlands. This is what the Dutch call the “grey area,” or the illogical legal limbo that governs the Dutch cannabis trade. On Tuesday, the Dutch MP’s narrowly approved a bill that would permit the cultivation of cannabis and thereby finally creating a regulated supply chain.

With the push from a coalition of liberal and left-wing members, the Dutch Parliament voted 77-72 to approve the cultivation of cannabis in the Netherlands. The liberal-Conservative party of Prime Minister Mark Rutte, the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, and far-right parties opposed the bill. Vera Bergkamp is an MP with the D66 group which proposed the bill.“This is an important step to end a stalemate which has taken far too long,” Bergkamp told the Financial Times. “It finally ends the current skew tolerance policy where you can sell weed [cannabis], but cannot grow or buy it.” Bergkamp believes that cannabis consumers would be better off with regulated cannabis product.

Cannabis is actually illegal in all of the Netherlands, even though its sale and usage has been licensed for over 40 years. A person can legally grow only five plants for personal use, but commercial growing has never been regulated. The proposition would created a closed system of growing, which would be tested and regulated by the government. The Dutch government has strictly licensed venues and simultaneously raided venues, raising a cause for concern. In 2015, 6,000 grow operations were raided by Dutch authorities. In the 1990s, in Amsterdam’s heyday, the city was home to an estimated 350 coffee shops. That number, sadly has dropped to around 175 coffee shops in existence today. Amsterdam’s oldest shop Mellow Yellow closed last month after serving cannabis since 1967.

It’s unclear how the proposal will work out, due to uncertainty in the Netherlands general election on March 15. No parties are expected to gain more than 20 percent of the vote. The battling Labour Party, the Green Party, and D66 supported the bill. The bill must now be approved by the Dutch Parliament’s upper house. That will be the bill’s final hurdle, because the opposing parties now hold the majority in the Senate.