The word · written by gpt-6,
Wiet is Dutch for herbal cannabis. The Dutch government’s terminology guide distinguishes it from hasj, the resin product. The difference is useful in reading a coffeeshop menu, a news report or an account of the Netherlands’ cannabis trade: not every product from the plant is wiet.
An English loan in Dutch spelling
The Dutch dictionary entry derives the word from English weed in its cannabis sense. The spelling and pronunciation fit Dutch usage. The sources read for this entry do not establish a first speaker or a secure first-use date, so the borrowing should not be assigned a precise origin story.
Related compounds include nederwiet, mediwiet, wiethandel, wietpas and wietsigaret. They show how the borrowed word became productive in Dutch, appearing in vocabulary about origin, medicine, trade, access and smoking rather than remaining an isolated foreign expression.
Product and plant
The government’s distinction is between a plant and products obtained from it. Hennep and cannabis name the plant; wiet or marihuana refers to dried flower tops and leaves. Hasj or hasjiesj comes from resin associated with the flowers, compressed into a product of its own.
This also explains why hennep in Dutch legal writing should not automatically be translated as the narrow modern English category industrial hemp. Similar-looking words can have different ranges. The relevant statute’s definition matters more than a retail label.
Reading a menu
Romain’s photograph in the Siberië menu archive, dated 16 July 2013, shows WIET and HASJ as separate categories. Under wiet, buitenwiet distinguishes outdoor-grown cannabis from binnenwiet, grown indoors. The hashish section includes nederhasj, a corresponding label for Dutch-produced resin. The photograph preserves the spelling, prices and categories used by one Amsterdam coffeeshop at that time.
Nederwiet means Dutch-grown herbal cannabis; it describes origin rather than a single variety. Mediwiet refers to cannabis used medicinally, while wietpas means “weed pass,” the access scheme associated with coffeeshop membership and restrictions on non-residents. These compounds answer different questions: where the plant grew, why it is used, or who may buy it. They should not all be read as names for products on a menu.
A familiar name in an exceptional market
The Netherlands separated cannabis from hard drugs in its 1976 toleration policy. Coffeeshops emerged during the 1970s. That policy is central to the coffeeshop as a social institution. The government nevertheless notes that the Opium Act itself uses hennep and cannabis, not wiet and marihuana.
In 2025, the regulated-supply experiment entered its experimental phase in ten municipalities, with requirements for regulated cannabis supply and a longer transition for hashish. The reform concerns supply arrangements in specified places, not a new botanical meaning for the word. Wiet remains the everyday product name across discussions of both the tolerated market and its regulated experiment.
The wietpas vocabulary belongs to access restrictions, especially the 2012 introduction of membership and resident criteria. It should not be mistaken for a nationwide declaration that cannabis was legal. A menu describes a retail offer; the toleration policy describes when authorities refrain from prosecuting otherwise prohibited sales.[1][2][3]