Advertising
Advertising prohibited
Advertising cannabis or coffeeshops is prohibited, including online promotion, and the national tolerance criteria (AHOJ-G) include a strict no-advertising condition. Violations can cost a coffeeshop its tolerated status. Municipalities may impose additional local marketing restrictions.
Homegrow
Up to 5 plants tolerated
Growing up to five cannabis plants for personal use is generally tolerated, but it remains illegal and police may seize the plants if discovered. Professional-scale cultivation is criminal and actively prosecuted, including under organized-crime statutes. Landlords and housing corporations often prohibit cultivation contractually.
Possession
Up to 5 g tolerated
Possession of up to 5 g of cannabis is tolerated: police will usually not prosecute, though they may confiscate it. Amounts between 5 g and 30 g can bring fines, and possession above 30 g is treated as a criminal offense. Cannabis remains an illegal soft drug under the Opium Act — the policy is non-prosecution, not legalization.
Retail Sale
Closed-chain supply experiment
The controlled cannabis supply chain experiment (wietexperiment) lets licensed growers supply coffeeshops in participating municipalities with regulated, tested cannabis. The experiment has moved into its operational phase, with participating coffeeshops required to sell only regulated product during the trial. Rules inside experiment cities therefore differ from the rest of the country.
Coffeeshop tolerance rules
Coffeeshops may sell up to 5 g per person per day under the national tolerance criteria: no advertising, no sales to minors, no hard drugs, no public nuisance, and a maximum of 500 g of stock on the premises. Municipalities may impose additional local rules, and some restrict access to residents. Supply to coffeeshops (the back door) remains illegal outside the experiment — the core contradiction of the Dutch model.
Recent changes
More Dutch municipalities join the regulated coffeeshop supply experiment; coffeeshops in experiment cities must sell regulated product only.