The Dutch government has expanded its historic legal cannabis cultivation pilot to eight additional cities. This expansion allows up to 80 coffee shops to legally acquire regulated marijuana from licensed growers, addressing a decades-old legal paradox where selling cannabis was tolerated but cultivating it remained strictly illegal.
The ongoing experiment, which began last December after several delays, previously only permitted deliveries to coffee shops in Breda and Tilburg. Eligible establishments in the following eight cities have now joined the pilot program:
- Almere
- Arnhem
- Groningen
- Heerlen
- Maastricht
- Nijmegen
- Voorne aan Zee
- Zaanstad
Amsterdam, the nation’s largest city and primary tourist hub, was denied participation in the experiment.
The trial has already resolved early operational hurdles, such as replacing a rigid 500-gram on-site inventory limit for coffee shops with flexible caps determined by individual city mayors. The program, set to run until 2028, aims to eliminate the criminal supply chain while providing consumers with unprecedented product transparency through traceable QR codes.
