How did it come about?

The first process-based quality assurance system for coffeeshops was developed in 2007, focused on quality management and transparent operations. From 2020 onwards it was built on further in a multi-year process of consultation, rewriting and tightening. The result is the current CVIP Sector Standard (BRL) — the longest-running process-based quality assurance system for coffeeshops in the Netherlands.

The direct cause lay in the growing exclusion of coffeeshops from regular payment services. After the tightening of the Wwft and the Financial Supervision Act (Wft) in 2018, structural problems arose for our members:

• withdrawal limits on cash (from €8,000 per month);
• refusal and cancellation of business accounts;
• refusal of mortgages and card payment terminals;
• extensive annual questionnaires as part of customer due diligence (CDD).

Under strict conditions (the AHOJGI+ criteria) coffeeshops may sell soft drugs without being criminally prosecuted — but the sale itself remains an offence, and no regulated framework exists for purchasing through the back door. At the same time, the Wwft obliges banks to carry out customer due diligence and maintain sound business operations. That intrinsic tension is the reason for the quality mark.

In November 2021 Member of Parliament Grinwis (ChristenUnie) asked parliamentary questions about this tension. Minister Hoekstra acknowledged that banks, in consultation with the sector, "must jointly explore mitigating measures". The quality mark was subsequently positioned as such a mitigating measure.

• 2007 — the CVIP quality assurance system emerges: the first process-based quality assurance system for coffeeshops.
• 1 July 2020 — the Closed Coffeeshop Chain Experiment Act enters into force.
• 2020 — Rabobank introduces a withdrawal limit of €8,000 per month for coffeeshops; other major banks follow with tightened rules.
• 2021 — parliamentary questions from Grinwis (ChristenUnie) about the tension between the Wwft and the tolerance policy.
• 2021–2022 — as BCD we hold structural consultations with the ministries of Finance, Justice and Security, and Health, with the NVB and with DNB, and draw up a code of conduct within the framework of self-regulation.
• 2023 — Member of Parliament Sneller (D66) asks questions about a national quality mark. The quality mark is put forward as a mitigating measure towards banks.
• 2025 — the CVIP quality mark functions as the requested instrument: a demonstrable quality system with which coffeeshops offer 'comfort' about their operations.

The standard was not written in isolation. The norms are based on structural consultation with public and private parties:

• Ministries — Finance, Health and Justice and Security recognise the need for transparency and have been involved in its development.
• De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) — supervision of compliance with the Wwft and the role of the quality mark in banks' customer due diligence.
• Dutch Banking Association (NVB) — structural consultation on the financial position of coffeeshops and the quality mark as a mitigating measure.
• ABN AMRO, ING Bank and Rabobank — individual elaboration of CDD requirements, cash-book obligations, cash flow analysis and practical applicability.
• House of Representatives — Members of Parliament Joost Sneller and Steven van Weyenberg (D66) asked questions about the banking problem; the ministerial replies confirmed the need for a quality framework.
• Municipality of Amsterdam — consultation with Mayor Halsema on the local cannabis market, enforcement dilemmas and the quality mark as an instrument for a more transparent regime.
• Trimbos Institute — input on skills development, prevention and the public health aspects of cannabis sales.
• We, as BCD — initiator and representative of the sector; we have contributed structurally through consultations, urgent letters and letters to parliament.
• Our members — coffeeshop operators from across the Netherlands provided input on the practical applicability of the norms.

• Banking due diligence & Wwft — information requests during CDD, contractual conditions, cash-book requirements and the positioning of the quality mark as a mitigating measure.
• Government policy & regulation — the position of the quality mark in the wider drugs policy, alignment with the closed coffeeshop chain experiment and the relationship with European drug monitoring (EMCDDA / EUDA).
• Municipal policy & enforcement — regulation of the local cannabis market, the banking problem and the quality mark as a basis for a milder administrative regime.
• Prevention & public health — input from knowledge institutes on training and the public health aspects of cannabis sales.
• Parliamentary questions & ministerial replies — written questions about coffeeshops' banking position and the replies that confirmed the need for a quality framework.