Six in ten Netherlands residents believe that the production, supply, and sale of cannabis and hashish should be legal. It is currently prohibited to grow cannabis, and growers are also not allowed to supply coffee shops, but the government tolerates the sale. Only 11 percent believe this current policy works well and nothing needs to change. That is the conclusion of Kieskompas and ANP based on a survey completed by over 6,000 Dutch people.
In almost all provinces, a majority is in favor of legalization. That group is the largest in Groningen and Flevoland, at around 70 percent. People from Drenthe and Zeeland are the least likely to favor legalization and are also the most likely to think that weed should not be tolerated at all.
Voting behavior is strongly related to opinions about the cannabis policy. People who voted for GroenLinks-PvdA, Volt, or PvdD during last year’s parliamentary elections are most often in favor of full legalization. Voters from PVV, FvD, and JA21 most often want to continue the current tolerance policy. SGP voters are by far the most often against both legalization and the tolerance policy.
