Weed growers participating in the cannabis experiment must be compensated if they have to wait to enter the market.
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That is what Mayor Paul Depla of Breda, one of the ten participating municipalities in the experiment, says to the KRO-NCRV program Pointer. In Limburg, Maastricht and Heerlen are participating in the experiment with legal cannabis cultivation.
Crucial
André Knottnerus, the chairman of the former advisory committee on the closed coffee shop chain, also says that it is crucial for the success of the experiment that the growers can supply the coffee shops simultaneously. “If you have to keep certain investments in the air that do not pay off for longer, then you have to find solutions and perhaps also go public.”
Closed chain
During the experiment, closed coffee shop chain, or the cannabis experiment, all coffee shops in the ten participating municipalities sell the regulated, quality-controlled weed and hashish for four years. It is produced by a maximum of ten selected growers.
Heerlen
At the end of 2017, the cabinet decided that experiments may be carried out in six to ten municipalities with the sale of soft drugs that do not come from the illegal circuit, but are grown under government supervision. The plan came a few years ago from Depla, the then mayor of Heerlen.
Growers
In November of this year, after a strict selection process, seven growers were selected who are allowed to produce weed and hash for the ten participating municipalities. The growers have now started production and are preparing for the so-called transition phase for the experiment. During this phase, the participating coffee shops can sell the legally grown hemp products in addition to the tolerated sale. After the transition phase, the cannabis experiment will start, which will take four years to complete. Then they are only allowed to work within the closed coffee shop chain.
The transition phase is expected to start in the second half of 2022.
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