Coffeeshops in Utrecht: rules, opening hours and the cap of 20

Utrecht has 13 coffeeshops, the mayor stated in June 2025, and may tolerate at most 20 — one of those places is reserved for a “social cannabis club” experiment. This page sets out the city's rules and where they are written.

Our list is shorter than the city's count

This directory holds 7 shops, fewer than the 13 the city names. The reason is our own method: no Dutch municipality publishes a list of tolerated coffeeshops, so we include only businesses that call themselves a coffeeshop in their own public listing. Anything trading under a bare brand name is missing here. That costs completeness and buys certainty about what is listed.

Tolerated, not licensed

Selling cannabis is prohibited in the Netherlands; what exists is toleration. The city issues a gedoogverklaring, and while the AHOJGI criteria of the OM's Aanwijzing Opiumwet are met there is no prosecution: no advertising, no hard drugs, no nuisance, no minors, at most 5 grams per buyer per day and a stock of at most 500 grams. No alcohol may be sold.

A cap of 20, with one place for a social cannabis club

Utrecht caps tolerated coffeeshops at 20, raised from 17, and the policy reserves one of those places for a “social cannabis club” experiment — no other city here has such a provision. Prospective operators go on a waiting list.

Opening hours and staffing

At most 10:00 to 24:00 daily; planning rules may be stricter.
A second member of staff must be present alongside the manager.
Visitors are required to show identification.

Distance rules, and two areas where nothing is tolerated

Inside the canals, 250 metres between coffeeshops; in residential districts outside them, 350 metres; at the edge of the city outside residential areas, no minimum. To a secondary or vocational school it is always 250 metres, measured as the shortest walking distance from main entrance to main entrance. Since 1 July 2024 a three-year moratorium (extendable to five) also covers part of the Amsterdamsestraatweg and the Nieuw Overvecht business park.

Public use: Utrecht has no cannabis ban

The city's APV bans open use of hard drugsonly. There is no equivalent cannabis ban, unlike Rotterdam (city-wide) and Amsterdam (a designated area). One trap in the text: the article on nuisance nitrous oxide use mentions “a substance as referred to in List II of the Opiumwet”, but the official explanatory note confirms that describes nitrous oxide itself, not cannabis.

The residency criterion

The I-criterion has applied nationally since 2013 through the Aanwijzing Opiumwet. Utrecht's policy refers to the AHOJGI criteria but writes out only A to G and says nothing about enforcing the I. We found no Utrecht source that settles it, so we make no claim. Nationally, the WODC found two of 103 coffeeshop municipalities enforcing it with high priority at the end of 2024.

Utrecht and the closed-chain experiment

Utrecht does not take part, but serves as a control municipality for its measurements. Its coffeeshops therefore buy the way every shop outside the experiment does: the front door is tolerated, the back door is not.

See all 7 coffeeshops in Utrecht →

Sources

This is not legal advice. ZazaMap sells nothing, brokers nothing and advertises no individual business.