Like the German medical cannabis tender bid before it, the Dutch government has run into a few problems rolling out a regulated industry across the country – and the first tender for cultivation has imploded

One thing is for sure. Governments find it very hard to roll out a federally controlled tender bid for the cultivation of cannabis. Everywhere.

Here is the thing the U.S., however, can take away from the following story. Don’t smirk – there is nothing about a state-driven licensed process on that side of the pond that is anywhere as complex if not complicated as doing it on this side of the Atlantic. And that is before the inevitable flubs and stupid politics get mixed in.

Here is the quick update. The first federally overseen Dutch attempt to finally regulate the cultivation of cannabis bound for domestic coffee shops (outside of major cities, which already decided to sit this out in favour of their own systems), has just hit formal skids.

Here is the upshot. The Dutch bid selections (9 rather than the initial expected 10 after one of these got disqualified) will all have to be reconsidered. Multiple errors in selecting winners, including leaving out the wishes of local councils, multiple entries by the same firm (this was a “lottery” after all) and other very unprofessional issues have all arisen in the last week as the bid was supposed to be decided. 

Even Dutch growers, and those who back them will concur that this was not only a highly foreseeable if not preventable situation. Not to mention the logic at work in reconfiguring the process is absolutely inescapable. Business plans as well as the disclosure of investor names are mandatory (for starters).

Unsurprisingly, the referees to all of this are circling wagons – but there is going to clearly be another bid redo in an environment where free wheeling cannapreneurial efforts are hitting the skids after being exposed to even the most minimal and logical regulatory muster.

In the meantime, enterprising firms interested in having their shot at a “little cannabis farm” in Holland should be aware that the decision process is far from over.

For an inside look at some of the most pressing regulatory, cultivation and tender bid issues in Europe, be sure to book your tickets to the International Cannabis Business Conference when it returns to Europe.

Plans to replace the production of blackberries with coffee-shop bound cannabis hit skids over NIMBYism at proposed grow sites for new Dutch licenses.

If it sounds like a scene straight out of a comedy, not to mention Colorado circa 2015 or so, just at a far lower altitude and probably still far more windmills, it is. The only problem is that it is also a tragedy. About lingering stigma, confusion, and more about the plant, if not its effects.

In these times of Covid, it also shows how this continued confusion has lasting effects – starting with jobs.

As the Dutch government proceeds with a pilot project to create ten licensed growers to supply the country’s coffee shops outside of big cities, it has run into its first major snag.

The residents of Etten-Leur, on the Belgian border, have trigged large local protests over a pending plan to replace blackberry crops with cannabis. There is now a request by the local mayor to the central government opposing the scheme. And the selection of the finalists for the 10 Dutch licenses has not even been decided yet.

The legal status of cannabis has everything to do with this. So far, Holland has not formally changed its national laws to legitimise the recreational cannabis industry. Indeed even this first trial as an attempt to do so has been opposed by its own large cities who maintain local controls on a still-flourishing industry.

The largest problem however now facing this model is larger scale, regulated cultivation. With Dutch residents now protesting the placement of larger corporate grows, the entire project may run into problems before it is ever rolled out.

Where To Grow New Canna Crops?

Holland produces a great deal of the medical cannabis flos that flows across the border to Germany – which has had its own ongoing problems with cannabis cultivation bids. Indeed, the first tender for medical cannabis, launched in the spring of 2017, has faced delay after delay in delivering domestically cultivated crops to German patients.

In Holland, the issue is already contentious – starting with the fact that the government could not even get cities to go along with a so-called “national plan.”

If smaller cities and municipalities also get into the act, the first licensing scheme for Holland, regulated on a federal level, will quickly fail.

For this reason, no matter how bad the news, it is also a step forward on the issue overall – in both Holland and the rest of Europe (see Luxembourg for starters).

Having a cannabis presence is one thing. Having a regulated cannabis industry is another.

And as American, if not Canadian communities learned long ago, the transition is always bumpy. For one reason or another. The good news, no matter the uncomfortable delays so far, is that it is happening at all

Be sure to book your tickets when the International Cannabis Business Conference returns to Europe this summer.