Author: Marguerite Arnold

Last week, the Spanish Congressional Health and Consumer Affairs Commission Committee met to consider exploring the medical efficacy of cannabis. Will this finally move the needle on some type of formal, final Spanish reform?

It is odd looking at the developments in Spain with an American perspective but on the European side of the discussion. In some ways, the situation in the country is analogous to the period of reform that began to percolate about 2014. Namely, two American states had voted to change their state constitutions to make recreational cannabis legal. In the meantime, federal reform of even the medical kind remained elusive. To some extent this is the impact of the lobbying power of the recreational movement in the United States and the lack of a formal underlying federal healthcare system. However, it is also a testament to the general reluctance of federal level authorities to even acknowledge the same.

In Spain, a similar kind of situation is brewing. 

The club movement really began picking up steam along with the American recreational movement. The two main Spanish states in which clubs are found today are the two most independent. Basque country and the Catalan (Barcelona). 

The club movement has been hurt by Covid, but it is still operating, around the edges of “the law.” In the meantime, one of the organizers of the same must report to jail nightly after his human rights case was refused by the court in Strasbourg. However, moving events across the EU (see medical reform in Germany, and now France) as well as Albert Tió’s struggle domestically has ignited, finally, a desire on the federal level in Spain to address the overall issue.

Could Federal Reform Help Solve the Club Problem?

It appears that the powers that be in Spain might have gotten the memo that the entire situation as it stands, is more than a bit ridiculous. The Comision de Sanidad y Consumo has ample evidence, including at this point many European countries that have recognized the drug as having medical efficacy. At the EU level, CBD is no longer considered even a narcotic.

While it is unlikely that the Spanish government will move quickly, it is unlikely that Spanish authorities will not push the issue forward, finally, within the next 12 months. And by tipping a hand to modern science it is also likely that the entire club conversation will also then get added to the mix. Currently, there is no reliable data on what percentage of club clients are patients.

There is already a rec market in Holland. Within a year there will be two more (in Luxembourg and Switzerland).

While it is unlikely in other words that anything on a federal level will be transformative by the admission of medical efficacy by the Spanish government, it appears that the time has come, finally, for Spain to enter the 21st century on the basic issue of federal medical reform. It is unlikely that the clubs will be closed when that happens. And further, very possible that this will be the final trigger to push for regulation of the club system (like what has been seen in Holland).

Be sure to book your tickets to the International Cannabis Business Conference when it returns to Europe this summer.

A 49-year-old male patient has made his application for medical home grow to the Spanish Medicines Agency public

Juan Manuel Rodriguez, a Gen X Spanish citizen, has just made his application for a cannabis home grow license to the Spanish Medicines Agency public. Rodriquez has been confined to a wheelchair for thirty years after a tragic accident when he was 19.

He is making his legal claim under the 1967 Spanish law (in other words a pre-constitutional law) which allows for the use of medical cannabis if specifically authorized by the federal drugs and medical devices agency.

The plea could not come at a more contentious time.

The Situation in Spain

Much like the Dutch market, the Spanish cannabis club environment has developed within the grey areas of national law. The most recent high-profile case in court, filed by activist Albert Tió, at the European level, went down in flames last month. In the meantime, the club scene is caught in disarray because of the Pandemic domestically. And beyond Spanish borders the issue of regulation is also moving in several European countries (see Holland, as of next year, both Luxembourg and Switzerland).

The activists on the ground know there is an opening – and are continuing to support legal challenges and applications of all sorts – including Rodriguez’ – and presumably those who will follow suit.

The application may finally be the tipping case to move the entire conversation forward – but it also may not. While severely disabled patients usually have a good case to make – and have often moved the needle (see Germany as a prime example of the same on a European level) – it is most often not adults but children who manage to put enough political pressure on governments to change the law. See the UK, but also see Israel where, in 2014, enough parents threatened to immigrate to the American state of Colorado that the Israeli government changed its policies within weeks.

That is not likely to be the case in Spain. However, what is clear is that the status quo is increasingly being challenged by individuals who obviously have a medical and economic need. 

Even in Spain in other words, prohibition is dying a death of a thousand cuts – one challenge at a time.

Be sure to book your tickets to the International Cannabis Business Conference events in Europe in 2021!