Tomorrow, Wednesday March 18, the Netherlands holds municipal elections. While these local elections often attract less attention than national ones, they are arguably more important for cannabis policy than any other vote in the Dutch political calendar.
It is the municipal council, the gemeenteraad, that decides whether a city has coffeeshops, how many are allowed, where they can be located, and how strictly local drug policy is enforced. Public smoking bans, enforcement against home growers, and the approach to the broader tolerance policy are all determined at the municipal level. In short: whether or not your city has a coffeeshop is decided by the people you vote for tomorrow.
988 Parties Across 340 Municipalities
The scale of these elections is enormous. Across 340 municipalities, a total of 988 political parties are competing for seats on local councils. Unlike national elections, where cannabis positions are relatively well documented, tracking the cannabis stance of hundreds of local parties across the country is a major challenge.
That is where the Cannabis-Kieswijzer comes in. Run by Stichting Maatschappij en Cannabis (SMC) in collaboration with the VOC (Verbond voor Opheffing van het Cannabisverbod), the Cannabis-Kieswijzer analyzes election programs and party positions on cannabis and drug policy to help voters make an informed, cannabis-friendly choice.
Seven Cities Analyzed in Detail
For these municipal elections, the Cannabis-Kieswijzer has conducted a detailed analysis of all participating parties in seven municipalities: Amsterdam, Den Haag, Deventer, Hoogeveen, Leeuwarden, Noordoostpolder, and Voorne aan Zee. Each of these cities has its own page on cannabis-kieswijzer.nl with a local energy label showing which parties are cannabis-friendly and which are not.
For the first time, the campaign also includes advertisements in local newspapers in several of these municipalities, featuring the local energy label. All 563 coffeeshops in the Netherlands have received posters encouraging customers to vote cannabis-friendly on March 18. It is the largest local election campaign around cannabis ever organized in the Netherlands.
The National Energy Label
While municipal elections are about local parties and local issues, the Cannabis-Kieswijzer also provides a national energy label that ranks the major Dutch political parties on their cannabis positions. The rating system works like an energy label, from A (most cannabis-friendly, in green) to F (least cannabis-friendly, in red).
At the top of the label, rated A, are parties that support full legalization including possession and home cultivation: BIJ1, D66, FvD, GL-PvdA, Piratenpartij, PvdD, SP, and LP. Rated B are BVNL and JA21, which support legalization but with stricter conditions on certain points. Volt and VVD receive a C rating, indicating they are open to possible legalization.
Further down, BBB and NSC receive a D rating for opposing expansion of the wietexperiment while wanting to continue the current tolerance policy. CDA, DENK, and PVV are rated E, favoring an end to the wietexperiment and stricter enforcement of the tolerance policy. At the bottom with an F rating are ChristenUnie and SGP, which want to close all coffeeshops entirely and ban cannabis use in public spaces.
What If Your Municipality Isn't Analyzed?
If you live in one of the 333 municipalities that were not analyzed in detail, the Cannabis-Kieswijzer website provides three questions you can ask local parties to determine their cannabis stance. The site also includes a template email and tips for finding the email addresses of parties in your municipality. If that feels like too much effort, the simplest approach is to vote for a local branch of a national party that scores well on the energy label.
Why It Matters
The Netherlands has 563 coffeeshops spread across 103 municipalities, but the distribution is far from even. As the campaign poster's map of the Netherlands shows, many municipalities have zero coffeeshops, while Amsterdam alone has more than 150. The decision to allow or prohibit coffeeshops, and how many to permit, is entirely in the hands of the municipal council.
With the wietexperiment now in its experimental phase across ten municipalities, and national debates about cannabis policy intensifying, the composition of local councils will play a crucial role in shaping the future of cannabis in the Netherlands. Councils that are elected tomorrow could decide whether the wietexperiment expands, whether new coffeeshops are allowed to open, or whether existing ones face tighter restrictions.
If you are eligible to vote in tomorrow's elections, bring your stempas and ID to the polling station and make your voice heard. For more information on how each party in your municipality stands on cannabis, visit cannabis-kieswijzer.nl.
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