#Analyse & Commentaar

From Coffeeshop to Cannabistro: On Regulating Cannabis Cultivation

Peter-Vincent Schuld

Let’s take a look at a topic that was also on everyone’s mind last week. Regulating and legalizing cannabis cultivation. Until a few years ago, I was a formidable opponent of this. It wasn’t and isn’t for me.
But what I think and found, what I think or or thought, what I find pleasant or not pleasant is not important in this case.

We see that a significant part of the population sometimes lights up a joint recreationally. The figures provided by the Jellinek Clinic for addiction care indicate that 75.5% of people who go out smoke a joint from time to time. And across the board of people over the age of 18, the percentage is 20.9 percent who have ever smoked weed. I suspect these are very conservative estimates.

Man with joint photo © Peter-Vincent Schuld

In the Netherlands, we have a policy that soft drugs are tolerated, at least the use and sale through coffee shops. Cultivation and therefore wholesale trade is and remains an illegal activity. The medicinal effects of cannabis are widely assumed, many based on the experiences of people with numerous diseases that have benefited from use. These people have started to share their experiences. Parallel to the assumptions and experiences, science has started to focus on the possible medicinal effects of cannabis and this has now been scientifically proven. In Israel, these investigations have come a long way.

In February of this year, an Israeli clinical study was published in the scientific journal European of Internal Medicine that concluded that the use of cannabis strains among the elderly led to a decrease in prescription medications, especially opiates.
It has been particularly successful in pain management, and there is talk that cannabis would also have benefits for people with cancer.

Cannabis-derived products such as CBD oil (without THC) have been very popular among people with a range of serious conditions for some time now.

Before we go any further: Primarily, it must be established that the cannabis plant is a natural product.

Purposes of hemp summarized on a sticker photo © Peter-Vincent Schuld

At the same time, as with many substances, there is a risk of addiction. The question should not be whether we should fully legalize this stuff, but how we should do it.

In this respect, the Belgians have to deal with their Minister of Health, Maggie de Block (Open VLD), who stated that despite calls from desperate parents with children suffering from cancer, cannabis and even CBD oil will never be legalized.

De Block argues, despite the proven benefit that patients have, that the effect of the THC-free CBD oil that the product would be unstable, would not have a medicinal effect and that it would be dangerous. Her word seems to be law.

Despite the fact that De Block’s physical size suggests the opposite, her point of view does not carry any weight in the discussion about what it should be about. There may still be questions about the CBD oil and the medicinal one, but at least it mitigates the symptoms of numerous ailments. MS, cancer, fibromyalgia etc. etc.

Cannabis plant in illegal nursery in Heerlen photo © Peter-Vincent Schuld

Why insist on a ban when a product improves the quality of life for someone in a lot of pain or who is in the last phase of life?

Who is Maggie de Block to deny the patients involved the legal path to some quality of life and are ordinary people forced onto the road of illegality with all the risks that entails?

In addition, CBD oil does not contain any psychoactive substance.

Not so long ago, you were punished in prison in Belgium if you were found by the police with a few joints in your pocket. Consequence? A criminal record, a gigantic invasion of your privacy, seeing and feeling your freedom deprived of your life and being treated like a criminal. Purely because of the fact that you are taking in a product that nature has given, and this is forbidden by law.
Shouldn’t laws be at the service of the people?
Is this the role we want the government to play?

illegal cannabis farm in Heerlen photo © Peter-Vincent Schuld

The path to controlled cultivation seems to be the most sensible one. Although there are also a few questions about this that do not have to stand in the way of legal cultivation. It is important that we take production out of the criminal spheres. People who make rented houses available to criminal organizations or who have started growing them themselves.
Where the electricity is illegally tapped, causing life-threatening situations in residential areas in terms of fire safety.

According to a study by the agency Intraval, which conducted research in 2016 on behalf of the daily newspaper Trouw, sales through coffee shops
would have about 1 billion euros in turnover. According to RTL Nieuws, which reported on this in 2015, the revenues for the State would yield about 443 million in VAT and excise duties, according to a conservative estimate, not counting the income and corporation tax for companies involved in cultivation. Other figures tell an even larger revenue stream for the State.

Illuminated advertising at a coffeeshop in Amsterdam photo © Peter-Vincent Schuld

As an example of how it can be done, the legalization of cannabis cultivation is cited in the policy in the US state of Colorado. Canada is following Colorado’s example, and the recreational use of cannabis will also be allowed there.

The discussion in the Netherlands was put back on the map last week by the recommendations of an advisory committee led by Prof. Dr. André Knottnerus that advocates an extensive trial with the legal cultivation and distribution of cannabis in a number of Dutch municipalities.
The advisory committee was tasked with advising the government on the possibilities and conditions under which such a trial could take place. Among other things, the committee recommended that the trial should not be discontinued if it proved to be a success.

Rolled up illegal cannabis farm in Heerlen photo © Peter-Vincent Schuld

But what is striking is the sense of reality and the proven independence of the advisory committee. The coalition agreement of VVD, CDA, D66 and the ChristenUnie had already stipulated that there would be a four-year trial in which a number of municipalities could start selling weed in a regulated manner, after which the trial would be phased out within six months. This is how Minister Grapperhaus of Justice and Bruins of Medical Care wrote to the House of Representatives at the beginning of March of this year.

The recommendations of the Knottnerus Committee go one step further. He pleaded not to stop the trial if it is successful to
ensure that people in the chain of cannabis cultivation, distribution and sale are forced back into the illegal sphere after the trial has ended.

Buds of weed plants found at knipperij photo © Peter-Vincent Schuld

Knottnerus therefore argues in favour of appointing five to ten growers who do not maintain or have any links with crime who could participate in the trial.

It is precisely the part “do not stop the test” that is more important in the rule of law that you would think at first sight.
After all, the government has a duty to ensure legal certainty for its citizens.

The current tolerance policy only leads to skewed situations, in which coffee shop owners have to keep hidden warehouses in order to keep the stock up to date and available for their customers. Possession of more than the tolerated quantity will lead to criminal prosecution.

coffeeshops in Amsterdam photo © Peter-Vincent Schuld

Then we have the use of pesticides in cannabis cultivation. A study by the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) among 25 coffeeshops showed that 90% of the weed sold contained pesticides. Not conducive to health, to say the least. In the case of regulated cultivation, this element can also be monitored and enforced.

rolling a joint photo © Peter-Vincent Schuld

But there is a question. Who are the people behind the cannabis cultivation, apart from the organizers and operators of the plantations?
The weed plants need to be trimmed. Are these people on benefits? If so, what benefits do they have and may not come from across the border from Belgium because cross-border detection of social fraud involves obstacles?

What will all those involved in the illegal circuit do if the legal regulated sector takes over their trade? Do they get involved in other forms of crime? These are questions that are separate from the issue of whether regulation of cannabis cultivation and distribution should be allowed, but they are a point to think about.

Confiscated weed in Heerlen photo © Peter-Vincent Schuld

If legalisation and regulation are introduced, this will in any case save a lot of capacity in the chain of investigation, prosecution, justice and execution of sentences.

The fact is that the current hypocritical situation of the tolerance policy is no longer tenable and that the government has been very reluctant to take a position in what people can and cannot do in and with their lives. In the Netherlands, the user has largely not been criminalized for a long time, in contrast to our neighboring countries.

The pressure on people in the digital performance society is increasing by the month. People seem to need a product that takes them out of the stress of everyday life. “Not for a while”, “To loosen up for a while”. There is still a certain taboo around the use of soft drugs, while
alcohol, a substance that causes a lot of misery from violence to fatal traffic accidents, is socially accepted.

Users of cannabis will also have to realize that after using these substances, certain actions such as driving motor vehicles are “not done”. But the use itself should no longer be a social taboo.

Rolling a joint photo © Peter-Vincent Schuld

A question of a completely different order is why nature has produced plants that have a psychoactive effect. Maybe that’s an existential question that we should try to answer.

From Coffeeshop to Cannabistro: On Regulating Cannabis Cultivation

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