El diari britànic The Guardian aborda
l'auge de clubs de cannabis a Barcelona i assegura que el boom
d'aquestes sales a la capital catalana ha acabat convertint l'estat
espanyol en "l'Holanda del sud".
Segons el rotatiu, Barcelona està rivalitzant amb Amsterdam per convertir-se en "el cel dels fumadors" encara que l'Agència de Salut Pública ha proposat noves estrictes mesures per a regular els clubs de cannabis.
Mentre a Amsterdam, diu The Guardian, s'ha restringit la venda de cannabis, a l'estat espanyol han proliferrat els clubs, de 40 el 2010 a més de 700 actualment. A Catalunya s'hi trobaria la meitat d'aquests clubs, segons el diari anglès.
Segons el rotatiu, Barcelona està rivalitzant amb Amsterdam per convertir-se en "el cel dels fumadors" encara que l'Agència de Salut Pública ha proposat noves estrictes mesures per a regular els clubs de cannabis.
Mentre a Amsterdam, diu The Guardian, s'ha restringit la venda de cannabis, a l'estat espanyol han proliferrat els clubs, de 40 el 2010 a més de 700 actualment. A Catalunya s'hi trobaria la meitat d'aquests clubs, segons el diari anglès.
Catalonia's public health agency has proposed strict new measures to regulate cannabis clubs in the region, amid claims that Barcelona is on its way to rivalling Amsterdam as a smoker's haven.
Amsterdam has tightened restrictions on cannabis sales just as the number of clubs in Spain
has proliferated from some 40 in 2010 to more than 700 today, say
smokers' groups. The Catalan capital is home to more than half of these
clubs.
From swanky clubs that span three floors to others with a
small room and a few plastic chairs, the clubs take advantage of a
provision in Spain's drug laws that allow marijuana to be grown and
consumed for private use.
The clause has turned Spain – and
especially Barcelona – into what Spanish media call the "Holland of the
South". But unlike Amsterdam's coffee shops, which are open to the
public, Spain's clubs are for members only.
Skirting
the membership policy is fairly easy; while many clubs stick to a
policy of requiring new members to be sponsored by existing ones, a
number of clubs allow prospective members to register online or via
telephone. Some clubs have employees who hand out promotional flyers in
the street, promising to ease the registration process.
The past
two years have seen hundreds of these cannabis clubs spring up in
Barcelona, creating a thriving industry as other sectors suffered the
economic crisis. Catalonia's cannabis clubs now count some 165,000
members, who rack up an estimated €5m (£4m) in sales each month,
according to El País newspaper.
Local officials in Barcelona have
been watching closely. In June, the city imposed a one-year moratorium
on new licences for cannabis clubs. Calling it a "preventative" measure,
deputy mayor Joaquim Forn said it would give the city some breathing
space to regulate the industry and "avoid it becoming a serious
problem".
A first draft of the regulations, drawn up by the public
health agency of Catalonia and obtained by El País, sets out strict
regulations on the cultivation and transport of the drug and clubs'
membership in an effort to chip away at the legal grey zone in which the
clubs currently operate.
Memberships will be limited to Spanish
residents, taking aim at the region's growing reputation for cannabis
tourism. Members will have to be 21 years of age or older and belong to
the club for at least 15 days before being given access to marijuana.
Other
measures include forcing clubs to register their plants and undergo an
annual inspection, in an attempt to give regional authorities a more
complete idea of the product on offer in the region.
The maximum
quantity that members will be allowed to access each month has yet to be
determined, said the proposal, but is expected to be somewhere between
60 to 100 grams a month (2-3.5 ounces). With some clubs currently with
as many as 5,000 users, the draft noted that a maximum number of members
must also be determined.
The proposed regulations were welcomed
by the Catalonia Federation of Cannabis Associations, one of many
associations that has been pushing the government to better regulate the
sector. While the association took issue with the draft regulations'
proposal of a fixed schedule that would force the clubs to close for a
three-hour lunch each day and close by 8pm most days, the regulations
were "positive in general", a spokesman, Jaume Xaus, told El País. Many
of the clubs, he noted, already follow similar regulations.
One
notable omission, he said, was to set a criteria for municipal licences.
Without this, he worried, the granting of permits would be left to
individual mayors, allowing for discrepancies to arise.
Cannabis
clubs have also become popular in the Basque country in recent years,
registering more than 10,000 members and leading the regional government
to begin drawing up regulations for the clubs earlier this year.
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