This year it is exactly 60 years since the Dutch tolerance policy was introduced in 1976 and coffeeshops sprung up all around the country and flourished to almost 2000 around the country in the nineties. Since then, the country has only had right leaning governments and the total number of coffeeshops is now down to under 600. There is a light at the end of the tunnel however. As nowadays it is the only place in the European Union where you can buy recreational cannabis. In this blog we delve deeper into the experiment.
How did it get to an experiment?
After the Wet Gesloten Coffeeshopketen (the Closed Cannabis Supply Chain law) had previously been passed by the House of Representatives under the Rutte II cabinet, it was announced on October 10 2017, that an experiment would take place to regulate the supply chain to coffeeshops. This was included in the coalition agreement of 2017 for the Rutte III cabinet.
It became a cannabis pilot rather than a full nationwide regulation of the back-door supply. During the coalition formation, the two opposing parties were diametrically opposed on cannabis. The social liberals of D66 wanted to proceed with the law, while the christian democrats would have preferred to close all coffeeshops immediately. The liberal party proposed that if they could not reach an agreement, they should conduct an experiment instead. And so it became an experiment.
At the end of 2023 the Dutch cannabis experiment started, albeit as a trial inside a trial, with only 3 of the 10 growers supplying coffeeshops in the southern cities of Breda and Tilburg.
It was only until the 7th of April 2025 the experiment really got underway, with illegally imported hash still tolerated due to shortages until the 1st of September.
It would however take until March 2026 until finally all the growers were supplying the coffeeshops in the participating ten municipalities.
What are the ten participating municipalities and cities?
Of the 23 municipalities that showed interest to participate, only ten could be selected to participate in the pilot.
In alphabetic order:
- Almere
- Arnhem
- Breda
- Groningen
- Heerlen
- Voorne aan Zee
- Maastricht
- Nijmegen
- Tilburg
- Zaanstad
It should be noted however that in the city of Breda, Heerlen and Maastricht, that if you are not a resident, you’re not allowed inside the coffeeshops due to local policy.
This leaves seven that you can visit.
Notably absent is of course Amsterdam. Amsterdam was interested however and was close to participating with Amsterdam-Oost district, but this got blocked by a vote in the House of Parliament.
Also the other big cities of the G5 (Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht and Eindhoven) are not participating.
Who are the legal growers?
On June 9, 2020, seemingly out of nowhere amid the COVID-19 crisis, news broke that interested parties could register for the pilot until July 28. There was certainly no shortage of interest: from the Netherlands' horticultural sector, from abroad, and from combinations of both.
By July 29, the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport announced that a total of 149 applications had been submitted for participation in the trial, making a lottery inevitable.
On November 27, applicants were notified whether they had advanced to the second round; ultimately, 96 applications were rejected while 51 proceeded to the final round.
The lottery results were then announced on December 3, 2020, yielding a final top ten.
The ten legal growers are, in alphabetic order:
- Aardachtig
- CanAdelaar
- Fyta Group
- Growery
- Holigram
- Hollandse Hoogtes
- Legacy Brands
- Leli Holland (Village Farms)
- Linsboer B.V.
- Q-Farms
How has the experiment been received so far?
The experiment has generally been received positively, with the only complaints from a minority that they are missing the imported Moroccan hash.
Understandably, because you cannot create the same hash for the same price in the Netherlands, whether grown in a greenhouse or inside.
Product categories
The experiment did introduce legal rosin, rosin vape pens and cartridges. But also a wide variety nowadays of dry sift, ice-o-lator (waterhash).
And also edibles, prerolls (with and without tobacco), and of course flower.
So while the hash from Morocco, Afghanistan, and Nepal will be missed (it’s still sold in coffeeshops outside the experiment), disappeared from the menu in the experiment shops, it has been replaced by Dutch-produced hash (Nederhash) in several forms.
Many Dutch cannabis consumers have little knowledge however or experience with modern concentrates such as rosin or ice-o-lator.
To educate coffeeshop visitors participating in the experiment about the different types of Nederhash, the VOC Foundation developed the campaign "What is Nederhasj?"
Strains for sale in the experiment
While most growers opt to grow new strains bred in the United States of Canada, there are also classics being grown.
Looking at who the growers have partnered up with, says a lot about the genetics you’re likely to find however.
Linsboer for example is working with Grounded Genetics and Marimberos to name a few. While Legacy Brands is working with Cookies, Dr. Greenthumb’s, Insane, SMKRS, Nature’s Lab, Allstar Genetics, Soma Seeds, Serious Seeds, Greenhouse Seeds and Suver Nuver. While Fyta has also announced a collaboration with Greenhouse Seeds.
Hollandse Hoogtes works with Karma Genetics and Amsterdam Genetics (and others), while Aardachtig works with Super Sativa Seed Club, Dutch Passion and Biotabs.
Q-Farms works with La Kalada, Grateful Seeds, La Chanvrière, Lady Sativa Genetics and Van Oranje.
Holigram has local genetics, but also new ones and works with Biobizz.
Leli Holland and CanAdelaar are wholly owned by Canadian companies (Village Farms and Cronos Group). Hence why Leli Holland has many Village Farms strains. Cronos only just bought CanAdelaar, expect more classic and some American strains from CanAdelaar.
In general, Aardachtig is the grower you go to for bio weed. While CanAdelaar has the cheap, greenhouse weed. All the others are basically big facilities growing on hydro.
Some of the strains available in the experiment you can grow yourself too, if you can’t visit the Netherlands, like our Super Silver Haze, Diesel, Lemon Haze, White Widow (or the Autoflower version), Northern Lights (or the Autoflower version), Amnesia Haze (or the Autoflower version), Cheese (or the Autoflower version), and Power Plant.
And when you’re done harvesting, you can make your own hash!
