The Legal Cannabis Coalition “Organizes” Holland’s Canna Expertise

Just when you thought that Europe was about to just lie down and give in to Brussels (on anything, but including all things cannabis), here comes the rear guard.

Organizing on both a regional and even country basis is hot stuff these days. Starting in, you guessed it, Holland.

The Legal Cannabis Coalition (or LCC) is a newish organization that is also pretty straightforward in its organizing mission. A dozen Dutch horticultural companies who have participated in a joint study to optimize greenhouse cultivation of medicinal cannabis, organized by the Wageningen University and Research (WURR) over the past several years, has (unsurprisingly) decided to formalize its association, with the goal of helping the industry grow.

The Netherlands is known for its agricultural product (Tulips anyone, beyond cannabis?). Much of that product, no matter what it is, is also grown in greenhouses. As a result, Dutch horticulture is not dominated by a few big firms, but many hundreds of much smaller businesses, who specialize in one or two products.

Members of the LCC have been active in setting up licensed cannabis producers in North America (see Canada in particular) but also other places around the world.
The LCC’s aim is to become a one-stop-shop destination for a wide variety of industry challenges. This ranges from setting up compliant greenhouses to increasing plant productivity.

The Dutch Do It Better?

There are few who can really compete with the Dutch right now, certainly in terms of longevity in providing medical cannabis product to countries globally. Bedrocan, a staple of the medical industry in several countries (including of course Germany) is a powerhouse in its own right.

But beyond this of course, the Dutch have pioneered a legal cannabis industry, even if it is still grey market-ish, that is widely admired and still not fully implemented anywhere else in the world. Namely, in the still nebulous areas if not red-light districts of an industry, the Dutch model of “coffee shops” and sources of horticulture to supply the same, has been not only a model and beacon of “canna freedom” for the past generation but also a model still widely not even on the regulatory cards anywhere.

For the latest updates on what is going down and who is doing what in Europe, be sure to attend the International Cannabis Business Conferences’s online Virtual Global Cannabis Symposium on June 9.