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Legal weed in Spain No way, José.

 

As regular readers know, Marijuana Games has long been a platform for the legalization of recreational and medicinal cannabis.  We forcefully believe that all adults should have safe, legal access to cannabis for recreational use.

It’s about the political, and cultural, change, that we want go around the world. It’s possible, it makes sense, and there are no big problems attached to it that can’t be solved. And it will be seen that cannabis will become a normal, everyday product.

We’re also well aware of how many unenlightened politicians around the globe are ignoring the potential huge tax gains, the massive savings in policing and justice related costs, the creation of new, exciting related industries and consequent substantial jump in employment.

It’s a frustratingly slow process with only two countries in the world where cannabis is legal.  Shouting out for Uruguay and Canada.  Sure, at the time of going to press some 21 states in the US have legalized recreational cannabis, but nationally there persists enormous political and police pressure to continue to criminalize users.

In Europe, everybody knows the EU traditionally does not want to have a member state that says we want to legalize cannabis. It’s not really clear what the treaties say, what the law says. Some experts say it’s possible, some say it’s not possible, at the end, it will be more a political question.

At Marijuana Games, we’ve already reported on moves in Germany, but the latest news is that everybody is speculating that legalization might be done in two steps — first, decriminalization of the consumers (including also home growers, and cannabis social clubs). Second, and it’s a step that will take a lot more work due to EU and national opposition, would be the opening up of retail outlets, dispensaries and general commercialization.

As we saw in Malta, the first European country that really did approach decriminalization, including the clubs, and which they did without EU interference.

Luxembourg had the same issue — a government that says we want to legalize cannabis and regulate the market. And after three years, they said that’s not possible under EU law so they just decriminalized cannabis and let people grow at home. But it was the EU stopping them. And, at present, Germany is in this situation. And whether Germany gets it done will now be the key for other countries. The Czech Republic is working in parallel to Germany, and also saying they want to legalize — the two countries could even legalize at the same moment.

So, what’s the latest in Spain? After all, it’s a progressive country with a progressive left coalition government. Are they calling for legal weed? Well, sadly, the answer is that Spain is nowhere near that objective and the proposed laws have not even been calling for full legalization. In fact, in the last 2 years there have been 3 fairly similar laws proposed by minority parties to decriminalize and regulate cannabis for medicinal and therapeutic ends, and basically to legally cover cultivation, sale and consumption at home, in private cannabis social clubs and elsewhere in order to safeguard consumers from illegal mafias operating in the sector.  But each one has been rejected by the majority parties in the lower chamber. As we said earlier, this is so frustratingly slow.  There’s still hope for new proposals covering medicinal cannabis as the Health Ministry was given the go ahead to look into the issue.  However, mañana-ism and procrastination seem to be the word.

Summing up, cannabis with THC content is still considered an illegal substance in Spain. If you are found in possession of a small amount of the substance in a public place you may be fined and your product will certainly be confiscated.  Evidently, if you’re found with large amounts, you’ll be arrested and charged for trafficking. The legality of private cannabis social clubs are pending a supreme court decision, but this court has been locked in its own internal wranglings to have made any headway on its decision. So, if you join as a private member at a private cannabis social club in Spain, you are protected by stringent privacy laws put in place with the establishment of the Constitution of 1978 after the downfall of the dictatorship.  This means that you donate a membership fee, and consume cannabis within the privacy of the club.  The clubs request that all members be aware of the legalities and respect the rules.

Please note that Marijuana Games does not sell cannabis nor does it promote its use. But,because we truly and passionately believe that all adults should have safe access to cannabis, we have carefully selected some clubs where our friends will be secure and the product is not tampered with chemical nasties like some stuff you can find on the streets.

If you’d like sponsorship to join a club in Madrid, Barcelona, Mojácar or Marbella, please use the form below to contact us.

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Mary Green
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