Easing back on the blue-lit sofa, it’s easy to forget that this peaceful corner of the city is also part of a mafia-run narco-economy. Ten per cent said they smoked for medicinal purposes, while half the female members said they used marijuana to ease menstrual cramps.įor many, the associations are a refuge and an oasis of calm. According to the drug's labeling, patients who. Catalonia also hosts Spannabis, the international cannabis trade fair.Ī study of Barcelona associations, carried out by the Journal of Drug Issues, found around 70% of members are male and nearly half are university educated. unsure how to activate it, then withdrew the entire contents (1.2 mL) from the pen's drug cartridge and administered that amount to the patient. “In recent years, we’ve seen people driven by profit, rather than the spirit of the cannabis movement, take advantage of the ambiguity of the regulations,” he said.Īround 70% of all Spain’s associations are in Catalonia, where cannabis consumption is higher than in the rest of the country, according to a National Drug Plan survey. Asensio accepts that organised crime is exploiting the association model. Eric Asensio, secretary of the Catalan Federation of Cannabis Associations, said the federation would like to return to the spirit of the 2017 law. Money laundering and the corruption it entails “poses a threat to the real economy and the quality of democracy in Catalonia”, according to Eduard Sallent, the Mossos chief. Police are destroying more than one million plants a year, mostly in Catalonia, but Chacon said this achieves little when they can’t get their hands on the profits. Chacon says criminal organisations from all over Europe, who used to buy in Spain to sell at home, have now set themselves up as producers in Catalonia. In Spain marijuana sells for €5 a gram, compared with a European average of €15. For years Spain has been the point of entry for Moroccan hashish, so the distribution network was in place when the marijuana boom began, just as tobacco smuggling in Galicia in north-western Spain created infrastructure for importing cocaine. “When we look at what has happened to other countries that are primary drug producers, such as hashish in Morocco or cocaine in Colombia, there’s cause for concern,” he said. Low prices and an ambiguous legal framework have made Spain Europe’s main marijuana producer, Ramon Chacon, deputy chief of the crime squad, told the Observer. In the province of Lleida, a group of growers used a drone to spot rival plantations, which they then destroyed. Police have uncovered indoor plantations with automated irrigation, remote-controlled thermostats and even odourless plants to avoid detection. Modified protocols might be considered on the basis of the clinical syndrome, drug of choice, and route of administration (. The report says that social acceptance of cannabis, depopulated rural areas and many empty apartments are facilitating the creation of plantations. Over the past year police have broken up 34 criminal organisations connected to cannabis and destroyed 319 plantations. With high profits and low risk – jail sentences rarely exceed two years – gangs from Europe are fighting one another to control the market, says the report.
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