Sale and consumption allowed but production and distribution prohibited: this has been the Dutch cannabis system for 40 years. According to various municipalities, this legislative contradiction has led to problems of order and public health. To fix the situation, the Dutch government has launched an experiment in which several controlled producers will be in charge of supplying marijuana to coffee shops in ten municipalities.
“The purpose of the experiment is to determine whether and how controlled cannabis can be legally supplied to coffee shops and what the effects of this would be,” the Government of the Netherlands’ website explains.
The cannabis supply...