Shops in 2 Dutch cities start selling legally grown cannabis in an experiment to regulate pot trade

By MIKE CORDER
Associated Press

BREDA, Netherlands (AP) — A paradox at the heart of the Netherlands’ permissive pot policy has gone up in smoke in two Dutch cities as “coffeeshops” began selling the country’s first legally cultivated cannabis. The move is part of an experiment to regulate the pot trade in the Netherlands. But it could mark the beginning of the end for a long-standing legal anomaly: people can buy and sell small amounts of weed without fear of prosecution in the country, but growing it commercially remains illegal. The chairperson of the Union for the Abolition of Cannabis Prohibition calls it a “very, very big step in the right direction.