Spain is a very interesting place and largely unique from the point of view of cannabis politics. Known for some time for its cannabis clubs and the laxity of cannabis application, Spain has a very limited medical cannabis program.
While Germany has probably the most organized and solid medical cannabis program in Europe, Spain’s program lacks in many ways.
To begin with, there is technically no legal way for patients to purchase medical cannabis outside of a pharmaceutical cannabis prescription for a very limited set of conditions.
To make matters worse, the Spanish government has only approved a handful of nationally licensed licenses, and the cannabis that is grown can only be used for research purposes or for export.
Spain is one of the most amazing places in the world to be a cannabis user, which is why we are so excited to bring the the largest cannabis superconference in the world return to Barcelona in March. So why is your medical cannabis program so limited?
A broken medical cannabis model
Medicinal cannabis is spreading to virtually every inch of the market European continent, as well as other continents, with different program models from one nation to another.
Spain’s medical cannabis model is almost non-existent by many measures, with patients relying on unregulated sources of cannabis.
The European nation has long served as one of the top tourist destinations for cannabis, and cannabis is very easy to find across the country.
For many cannabis enthusiasts, legalization freedoms are already a reality due to lax application and easy access to cannabis in Spain, so pushing for a new reform is not so urgent.
However, as long as safe access to medical cannabis is not guaranteed to suffering patients, there will always be people on the outside looking inward and patients being persecuted unnecessarily, so reform is still warranted.
Huge potential
From 2019, Spain was tied with France to have the highest rate of cannabis use in Europe (approximately 11%).
In Spain, medicinal cannabis is bought and sold every day, and cannabis is exported for other patients to consume in other countries.
The only difference is how it is regulated, and because medical cannabis is not regulated in Spain, the medical cannabis industry is extremely limited.
Spain has a unique position in the global cannabis industry to achieve a large presence in the cannabis space both nationally and internationally. However, this will only happen if lawmakers approve reasonable reforms and adopt a fully legalized industry.
