The celebration of a private event in a cannabis club in Barcelona had serious consequences for those responsible for the association that managed the premises. The Supreme Court sentenced the president, secretary and treasurer of one of these spaces to three years in prison for providing it to a party during which cannabis was distributed to people who were not members of the entity .
The event took place at the beginning of March 2018, coinciding with the celebration of the Spannabis fair, considered the most important in the sector and which brings together in Barcelona a good part of businessmen, activists and workers in the marijuana sector of everyone. world. .
The premises of this association, located in the center of the city, were made available for a private event during which the book by Mila Jansen, an octogenarian who invented various techniques for making hashish and revolutionized the resins obtained, was to be promoted. from marijuana. Regular members of the establishment were advised that due to a private event, the establishment would remain closed that day between 1:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.
The event was also part of a sort of “cannabis cup” organized by 28 establishments of this type in the city, also coinciding with the Spannabis fair, for which one could purchase a pass that allowed visiting different associations and try and evaluate the products. They They participated in the competition.
On the day of this private celebration, three plainclothes agents from the Urban Guard intercepted various participants leaving the premises who were not members of the association and who had obtained cannabis inside. Many of them were foreigners who were in Barcelona that week due to the aforementioned fair and who had attended the event, whose tickets could be purchased through a well-known ticket sales platform.
After refusing them entry to the premises, the Guàrdia Urbana obtained a search warrant for the next day and seized various substances containing THC, the active ingredient of cannabis, as well as various cannabis products. merchandising from the party the day before. Within the association, tourists were identified, once again, who had been assigned a “disparate and irregular” membership number, according to the judgment to which elDiario.es had access.
Unlike other occasions where the High Court has estimated the resources of cannabis clubs and annulled the convictions for illicit association, the Supreme Court considers that on this occasion this offense occurs because, among other aspects, these different consumers who were not members of the association accessed and acquired cannabis in the presence of club officials.
“With the party organized at the headquarters (…), the accused authorized and favored the distribution of marijuana on the premises of the association to people who were not members,” we read in the resolution of the Supreme Court which rejects the appeals of club officials. .
The judgment, without appeal, sentences those responsible to one year in prison for crimes against public health and two years for the aforementioned illicit association. Those convicted must also pay more than 22,000 euros in fines each and part of the costs. The Supreme Court excluded them from any employment or public function for one year and also accepted the dissolution of the association.
Until now, the Supreme Court had reduced a good part of the prison sentences to which the promoters of various cannabis clubs had been sentenced, including the first one opened in Barcelona in 2006. On this occasion, however, the High Court confirmed the conviction and conclusions of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) and the Court of Barcelona.
The TSJC’s ruling that this club attempted to appeal also took into account the fact that some of those intercepted inside the premises assured officers that they had reached the association through customer recruiters located in the most central streets of the city.
The judgment, dated at the end of October, once again shows the gulf between the social perception of a sector of citizens – who practically consider cannabis a legal substance that can be purchased in these stores, where competitions even take place where different types of marijuana are valued – and the serious legal consequences still face people who run smoking associations.
