The Supreme Court rejects the regulation of CANNABIS CLUBS in Barcelona
The Supreme Court rejects the regulation of cannabis consumer clubs in Barcelona, ​​​​the city in Spain with the largest number of associations of this type. He issued two sentences in just one month. This declares that the City Council of the Catalan capital does not have the powers to regulate the functioning of these entities through a municipal urban plan approved in 2016.
The judicial battle for the delimitation of the regulatory powers of cannabis consumer associations has thus reached the heart of a system based on responsible and shared consumption and harm reduction, of which Spain is the world leader. Previously, the Constitutional Court had already declared the laws approved by the parliaments of Navarra and Catalonia unconstitutional. Now, the Supreme Court has followed this argument by ratifying two sentences of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia in which two appeals are partially upheld against the agreement of 27 May 2016 of the Plenary of the Barcelona City Council with which the development was approved urban for the territorial organization of clubs and associations of cannabis consumers. A year after those elections, the municipal plenary session approved the new plan with votes in favor of Barcelona.
The goal:
As explained by those responsible, it was to make the right of cannabis consumer associations compatible with the exercise of other fundamental rights. The legislation has softened the requirements:
- It always forces you to maintain a certain distance from education centers.
- It has established 200 m2 as the maximum surface area of ​​the premises.
- Required a double entrance door or separating corridor.
- As well as the installation of chimneys to expel smoke.
- Finally it granted a period of 18 months to adapt the structures to the new legislation.
But these requirements, in particular the obligation to have a chimney for the expulsion of cannabis smoke, have motivated the resources of some interested cannabis associations, which are the ones that ended up at the Supreme Court after the Barcelona City Council appealed against them.