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Spain: How Barcelona's cannabis clubs are making it a rival for Amsterdam Graham Keeley inews Saturday 01 Apr 2023 The Dragon Club could be mistaken for just another fashionable café if it were not for the unmistakable sweet aroma in the air. Cannabis clubs like this have boomed in Barcelona in the past decade, making the city a rival to Amsterdam as Europe’s favourite destination for stoners, with UK and Italian tourists a particularly enthusiastic clientele. Since 2010, the number of clubs licensed by the council has soared from 40 to 223, thanks to Spain’s liberal drug laws and a left-wing council with a lenient attitude. These “cannabis social clubs” are run as non-profit associations and membership is essential for entry. Anyone who fancies buying and lighting up a joint can only become a member if introduced by another member, either online or in person. But in practicem these rules present few obstacles to the casual cannabis tourist, fresh off a flight from the UK, providing they are prepared to a pay a €20-€50 (£17.50-£44) membership fee. Javier Díaz Martin, who runs an online guide to all of Spain’s cannabis clubs, said overseas visitors can get easy access to Barcelona’s biggest clubs simply by turning up and going through a brief, on-the-spot interview. “They will ask to see your passport, make a note of who you are,” Mr Martin, who also runs a cannabis club in Seville, told i. “They will check you are over 18 and that you have used marijuana in the past.” Several online guides, like Mr Martin’s, make the task even easier by offering detailed maps of where to find Barcelona’s best cannabis clubs, much in the same way as they might pick out the top 10 hotels, restaurants, or bars. With names such as Hollyweed Barcelona, Cube Barcelona and Kush, they look more like upmarket nightclubs than dingy, secretive back rooms for potheads. Such is the fame – or infamy – of Barcelona that an international delegation visited the city earlier this month to learn how to export the model around the world. Officials from the UK, Malta, Czech Republic, Germany, Mexico and Colombia attended the tour of Barcelona’s cannabis clubs. All are considering adopting the “Spanish model” of how to live with marijuana. “I would love to see a model like this in Colorado [in the US],” said Molly Duplechian, director of excise and licensing at Denver city council. Dinis Ramos, a Portuguese Social Democrat MP who visited one of the clubs, said he was surprised and “thought it would be more secretive and clandestine”. Spanish law bans the sale and use of cannabis in public, but permits cultivation of up to 100g for personal use. Selling or transporting larger amounts is illegal and can incur fines of between €601 and €30,000. Walk through most Spanish cities and the smell of cannabis wafts in the air near many bars. Police usually turn a blind eye and focus instead on catching serious smugglers. As there is no law banning consumption in private, members of cannabis clubs claim it is safer to use the club than go out to parks and smoke in public. In some cases, judges have even returned cannabis confiscated by the police to club members. Jos Masegosa, chief executive of CSC (Cannabis Social Clubs) Green Gourmet – a company that supplies food and drink to cannabis clubs in Barcelona – said the nature of the clubs has changed as more tourists arrived in search of a legal high. There is a very international environment. There has been a real boom here in Barcelona recently. The quality of the clubs has really gone up; they are much more professional,” he told i. “The Supreme Court has struck down attempts by local councils to bring restrictions because it is the state which decides this.” Nevertheless, the rise of these stoners’ clubs has not pleased everyone. In 2016, Barcelona’s mayor, Ada Colau, granted a reprieve to more than 100 clubs that were to be closed because of complaints they were too close to schools. However, since Colau’s far-left En Comú Podem party joined forces with the Socialists, the coalition council has attempted to bring in more restrictions. All clubs must be further than 100m from schools under plans approved by the council. Opposition groups are worried the city, which is internationally famous for its Modernist architecture, has gained a less salubrious reputation as a place to get out of your head. Eva Parera, a candidate for the mayor of Barcelona for the centre-right Valents party in local elections in May, said that lax regulations allowed the proliferation of drug clubs. “It is easier to open a cannabis club than a discotheque or a restaurant,” she added. Enric Asensio, of the Federation of Catalan Cannabis Associations, said the council was not issuing as many licences to clubs as before. “It seems that they do not want more clubs to open. They want to restrict them. But they continue to be popular, especially for British and Italian tourists,” he told i. Zara Snapp, of Instituto RIA, a Mexican organisation that investigates drug policy, said the Spanish model could be applied elsewhere. “If we retain the not-for-profit model of these social clubs, then this could be adapted elsewhere,” she said. “It is already starting in South Africa and Mexico." https://inews.co.uk/news/barcelona-cannabis-clubs-amsterdam-2244388
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