Barcelona Cannabis Clubs Still Completely Unregulated, Lawmakers Stalled

Cannabis clubs in Barcelona remain completely unregulated as of the first quarter of 2019, despite constant pressure on the federal government to legalize marijuana.  There are more than 200 private cannabis clubs in Barcelona, and perhaps 100 more in Catalunya, yet not one single federal rule exists to govern or regulate these marijuana smoker’s establishments. 
 
“The clubs have never been regulated at the federal level,” explains Russ Hudson, an international cannabis consultant based in Spain, “and that’s not just in Barcelona – not one of the cannabis clubs in this entire country has ever earned legitimacy.”
 
That’s a big problem, Hudson says, because it leaves Barcelona’s cannabis clubs in a difficult position.  Local authorities generally practice tolerance, but different regions enforce local ordinances differently, and these often conflict with constitutional protections that allow the clubs to exist in the first place.      
 
“There is no law at the federal level that governs or regulates cannabis clubs,” Hudson explained during a recent interview, “What we have here are two Constitutional protections – the Right to Privacy, and the Right to Association, which are the fundamental basis for all private cannabis social clubs in Barcelona and the rest of the country.  But those two protections don’t explicitly permit or prohibit cannabis clubs, nor do they establish any rules to govern how the clubs operate.  It leaves all of us operating in a grey zone, unsure if what we’re doing will result in arrest and criminal charges at some point.” 
 
Hudson has written extensively about Barcelona cannabis clubs as the Editor-in-Chief of the MarijuanaGames.org blog, and has helped thousands of people join clubs that he is a member of via his work found here: https://marijuanagames.org/tag/barcelona-cannabis-clubs/. As a cannabis consultant, has helped organize and open dozens of new cannabis clubs in the country.  Hudson is considered the top English-speaking expert on private cannabis social clubs in Spain. 
 
Recently, lawmakers and politicians in Spain – including the President – have made remarks that indicate some form of legalization is coming soon.  But so far, no serious legislation has been presented to lawmakers. 
 
The most recent legislation was regional, occurring in Catalunya as part of the La Rosa Verde (The Green Rose) Petition, which demanded that regional lawmakers legitimize and set out rules to govern the hundreds of cannabis clubs in Barcelona and beyond.  The petition collected more than 60,000 signatures, amendments were made, and the bill passed as law in Parliament, but shortly after the region lost its autonomy in a failed bid for independence, and the entire project was scrapped when the federal government booted all local lawmakers and cancelled recent legislation.    
 
Now, the clubs are in a state of disorganization, with some cannabis associations keen to earn the city’s respect and follow a long line of regulations, and others running amok, selling cannabis to tourists on the street, allowing underage people to acquire marijuana, and getting involved in other illegal activity.  But Russ Hudson claims that, despite the lack of federal legislation, there are still rules to be followed. 
 
“The Right to Privacy means that cannabis clubs in Barcelona can’t just allow any person who walks in off the street to become a member.  New members can only come to the club via a sponsorship from an existing member in good standing.  And, of course, cannabis can only be shared among the club’s members, behind closed doors.  Allowing anyone to join without a sponsor makes a club a public establishment, subjecting it to immediate raids and possible closure.  And allowing the cannabis the club produces to get outside of the closed circle of members is also good reason for the local city or district attorney to press criminal trafficking charges and shut the club down.  So, we do have some basic rules to follow.”
 
But not every club follows even these basic rules, leaving many people in a state of confusion about what is and what is not allowed inside Barcelona cannabis social clubs.  This has led some cannabis club owners to become angry;
 
“We’re trying to do the right thing here by offering people an option other than the black market,” said Andrew S., President of the Saigon cannabis club in the Gracia district of Barcelona, “but there are a lot of clubs making us look bad.  Where we insist on vetting all new members, some clubs let anyone walk in from the street.  Where we insist on high-quality, locally-sourced cannabis, many clubs buy and resell outrageously-priced, dubious cannabis from California.”   
 
Russ Hudson echoes these sentiments, and said that many people in Barcelona see just a few clubs engaging in bad behavior and assume the entire industry is running afoul of the law, when the majority are actually eager to obey the rules and have clear guidelines for operations. 
 
“We all want to do the right thing.  We’re not sitting here trying to fly under the radar and do as we please.  We are asking the city and the feds to provide us with guidelines that we can follow, taxes that we can pay, and other meaningful ways that we can contribute to our communities.  We want to obey just laws.  But without a single law to govern us, not one of us can feel safe in this industry; we’re mostly making it up as we go along, hoping that, one day, we’ll gain legitimacy.  For now, we go another year without any regulation.”
 
When asked about the impact of tens of thousands of tourists that arrive each year to visit the many cannabis clubs in Barcelona, Hudson scoffed; 
 
“There’s never been any law that states a visitor or foreigner cannot become a member of a cannabis club in Spain.  Never.  And furthermore, Spain cannot create legislation that is discriminatory against other members of the European Union, even if they wanted to.” 
 
However, because of the strong anti-tourist sentiment in Catalunya – and especially in Barcelona – some people want to shutter the cannabis clubs simply because they view them as a tourist attraction.  Banners and signs protesting tourists and sometimes specifically cannabis clubs can be found hanging from buildings in many corners of the city, and demonstrations often erupt in the Ciutat vella or central district of Barcelona.
 
Hudson pushed to prove his point;
 
“Look, if you have tourists, business people, visiting family members, or anyone else come to your country, would you rather force them to find a black market source of cannabis, and have out-of-towners supporting criminal forces, or would you rather provide them with a safe, quiet, and regulated place - just like a bar – where they can reasonably acquire what they are going to damn well acquire one way or another anyway?” 
 
To that end, Hudson has for years offered to sponsor people to become members at the cannabis clubs he belongs to.  According to him, everyone has the right to safely acquire cannabis.  Interested applicants can apply for cannabis club membership in Barcelona at the following link: https://marijuanagames.org/get-your-membership-barcelona-cannabis-clubs/
 
For now, it seems like the status quo will remain exactly as it has been for Barcelona cannabis clubs, which means that, for the most part, these establishments should continue operating mostly unperturbed – although lacking clear rules – for the foreseeable future.

Contact Information

Rachel Clark

Administrator

CannaBizConsultant.com

Contact via E-mail