The celebration of a private event in a cannabis club in Barcelona has had serious consequences for those responsible for the association that ran the premises. The Supreme Court has sentenced the president, the secretary and the treasurer of one of these spaces to three years in prison for providing it for a party in which cannabis was distributed to people who were not members of the entity.
The event was held at the beginning of March 2018, coinciding with the celebration of the Spannabis fair, considered the most relevant in the sector and which brings together in Barcelona a good part of the businessmen, activists and workers in the marijuana sector from around the world. .
The premises of this association, located in the center of the city, were provided for a private event in which the book by Mila Jansen was to be promoted, an octogenarian who invented various techniques for making hashish and revolutionized the resins obtained from marijuana. The regular members of the establishment were notified 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 kind of “cannabis cup” by 28 establishments of this type in the city, also coinciding with the Spannabis fair, for which you could buy a pass that allowed you to visit different associations and try and evaluate the products they They entered the competition.
On the day of this private celebration, three plainclothes Urban Guard agents intercepted various attendees at the exit of the premises who were not members of the association and had obtained cannabis inside. Many of them were foreigners who were in Barcelona that week due to the aforementioned fair and had attended the event, whose tickets could be purchased through a well-known ticket sales platform.
Having denied 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. Tourists were also identified, once again, within the association who had been assigned a “disparate and irregular” membership number, according to the ruling, to which elDiario.es has had access.
Unlike other occasions, in which the High Court has estimated the resources of the cannabis clubs and has annulled the convictions for illicit association, the Supreme Court considers that on this occasion this crime does occur because, among other aspects, this different consumers who were not members of the association accessed and acquired cannabis in the presence of those responsible for the club.
“With the party organized at the headquarters (…) the accused allowed and promoted the distribution of marijuana within the association premises to people who were not members,” reads the Supreme Court resolution that dismisses the appeals of those responsible for the club. .
The ruling, which cannot be appealed, sentences those responsible to one year in prison for a crime against public health and two 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 has disqualified them from any employment or public office for one year and has also agreed to the dissolution of the association.
To date, 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 that opened in Barcelona in 2006. On this occasion, however, the The High Court has confirmed the conviction and the conclusions reached by the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) and the Court of Barcelona.
The TSJC ruling that this club attempted to appeal also took into account that some of those intercepted inside the premises assured the agents that they had reached the association through customer recruiters in the most central streets of the city.
The ruling, dated at the end of October, shows once again the abyss between the social perception of a sector of citizens – which practically sees cannabis as a legal substance that can be purchased in these stores, where contests are even held where various types of marijuana are valued—and the serious legal consequences that people who run smoking associations still face.
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