Dutch high hopes for legal cannabis farms hit by nimby protests

Drug supply experiment falters as Netherlands plan for greenhouses stirs anxiety among local residents

A Dutch trial of state-regulated cannabis cultivation farms to supply coffee shops risks being derailed by an outbreak of nimbyism after locals protested about the location of one of the new facilities.

The plans to take over greenhouses on the outskirts of Etten-Leur, a town in north Brabant, near the Belgian border, and replace blackberries with cannabis plants, triggered large local protests and a request by the local mayor for central government to block the scheme.