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The international cannabis sector wrapped up its yearly gathering in Barcelona with all eyes on Germany’s upcoming regulation and the contradiction of host country Spain still without one.
The two cannabis events traditionally held in the Catalan capital in March, namely the International Cannabis Business Conference (ICBC) and consumer trade fair Spannabis, targeted different audiences but this year coincided in highlighting a European paradox.
In an unexpected twist of events, Germany turned to the cannabis social club model for its recently voted legalisation bill, leading other countries, such as the Czech Republic, to do the same.
At the same time, Spain – where that model has been illegally applied for more than 20 years, mostly in Catalonia and in the Basque Country – still has no regulation in place, not even for medical cannabis, after a series of interminable delays blamed on political turmoil that shook the government in the past couple of years.
Getting it done with German efficiency
In a talk on the cannabis social club regulation model at the World Cannabis Conference, held within Spannabis, Spanish politologist and legalisation activist Ana Afuera said she admired the German government for taking only two and a half years from when the decision to legalise cannabis was made to having a bill in a parliamentary vote.
“Over there it was said and done,” she said, “unlike here, where social clubs have existed for 25 years.”
Afuera did have to admit, though, that as defined by the bill, the German model deprives cannabis social clubs of an essential part of the self-regulatory spirit that inspired their creation because it forbids on-site consumption.
“In Spain it would be inconceivable that a cannabis club could exist without letting people consume inside,” she said.
Though the time Germany took to approve a legalisation bill may appear remarkable from inside Spain looking out, it was not as appreciated by some German industry members. Oliver Waack-Jungersen, chairman of a cannabis social club in Berlin, said he is always very surprised to hear his Spanish colleagues praise Germany for its efficiency in this matter, considering all the changes and delays leading up to it.
Could another European country get there first?
The previous day, business attendees at ICBC had already pointed out Germany’s sudden “changes of heart” and political clashes leading to the current draft regulation, which, while approved by the parliament, still has to go through the country’s Federal Council, which may object to it and delay its upcoming application set for 1st April.
Economist Beau Whitney said in his presentation: “If Germany continues to waffle, that opens up space for other countries to take the lead.”
While it remains highly unlikely for Spain to be the one taking the lead in the legalisation process across Europe when the regulation of recreational cannabis was never even on the government’s agenda, hopes remain that that next edition of Barcelona’s cannabis week will be held in the context of a regulated medical market.
And business operators are certainly not the only ones who want to see this long overdue development become reality.
What patients want to see next year
Carola Pérez, president of the Spanish Observatory for Medicinal Cannabis, is among the therapeutical cannabis growers and users pushing for legal access to cannabis-based medical treatments and the harmonisation of regulations across Europe.
“They once gave me methadone, but they can’t prescribe cannabis,” she told the audience of a panel on medical cannabis, adding that she has no intention of waiting for the government to finally come up with a law.
“I am too old and too tired. I am just making my own medicine because [the authorities] do not provide it and I am not going to stop taking care of myself.”
Based on the programme from Spain’s new health minister, Mónica García, the government is finally working on the draft regulation, which may give the medical cannabis sector and patients hope that, by the time Barcelona hosts the next editions of ICBC and Spannabis in March 2025, they will be operating and consuming under a clear legal framework.
– Tiziana Cauli CannIntelligence staff
Photo: Spannabis
