During the recent years, cannabis tourism in Barcelona has increased significantly. The city is being visited every year by thousands of tourists, atracted by the cannabis culture you can breath. City visitors can walk through the city and smell marijuana in almost every corner, with dozens of stores, and specialized centers, besides more than one hundred CSC (Cannabis Social Clubs).
Barcelona, Amsterdam
In these recent years, in Spain, cannabis has developed until reaching nowadays levels that, in Europe, only were seen in Holland before. Marijuana consumption is normalized socially, specially in-between youth, and following Drugs European Observatory, the year 2015 a 17% of spanish youth were tokers. In addition, cannabis growing has expanded through all the country, with many specialized stores, seedbanks and cannabis associations.
Cannabis culture has rooted in Barcelona, and the comparison with Amsterdam is inevitable. Nowadays, in Barcelona there are few more than 120 Cannabis social clubs, besides a cannabis museum, many grow stores, the biggest Cannabis Fair in Europe, and overstanding events from Green World. Itis only needed to take a look through internet to notice there is a neverending numbur of sites placing this city as one of the best cities in the world to consume cannabis. Some even say it's better than Amsterdam. So why Barcelona is experiencing this cannabis tourism increase? Is Barcelona the new Amsterdam really?
Cannabis tourism in Barcelona
Barcelona is kind city: the weather and temperatures are friendly almost all the year, their citizens are open-minded and tourist-friendly, great resto offer, and it is a cheap city compared with other European cities. All this atracts millions of tourists a year. But let's be clear, cannabis tourism made a huge step forward thank to the large number of Social Cannabis Clubs and the wide offer on the net of doubtful cannabis tours. Tourists arrive to the city atracted by these clubs with a desire of tasting the different strains these grow. What most don't know is that, unlike Amsterdam's coffee shops that are public and allow access to everyone, Cannabs Social Clubs are only open for members, and you can only access being invited by one of its members. Even though cannabis tours bring some help and make it easier to become a member, and also offer a tour throught some of them. Despite these limits, many tourists value positively the distended enviroment, closer and relaxed that you can breath in Social Clubs in Barcelona, so different from what you breath in Holland's coffee shops. What else? Barcelona's clubs offer a way cheaper flowers than Amsterdam: While in Barcelona 1 gram goes from 6€ to 12€, in Amsterdam this price moves between 8 and 16 Euros per gram.
For all those more curious, Barcelona also offers the possibility to visit Hash Marijuana & Hemp Museum. The famous Dutch museum opened its doors in Mornau Palace in Barcelona in 2012. Here, in addition to temporary expos, there is a fixed exposition that goes through all history of cannabis, with highlight objects like Rembrand's picture, or a pipe collection with pieces from all over the world.
Barcelona also is a place to find some fairs, competitions and events relationed with marijuana. Since 2002, in Cornellà there is set one of the biggest cannabis fairs: Spannabis; that groups all sectors of relationed with cannabis plant, from fabric industry to grow industry and head shop industry; that also meets World Cannabis Conferences with Cannabis Champions Cup.
But, if someone believes that Barcelona's relationship with cannabis is from few weeks ago, they are totally wrong. This link was created in 1888, in one of the most iconic monuments of the city: The momument to Christopher Columbus, the scultorix group placed in Portal de la Paz Square, wich column is surrounded, on its central part, by marijuana leaves. Because before cannabis stigmatization, hemp was a frequently used product. Sailing, boat's ropes were made with cannabis, as well as planks. Seems that Columbus not only discovered America, he also imported cannabis to the New World. Heading to America they took some hemp, just in case of need to repair the boat, loaded seeds for consumption, and once there for growth, and also too cannabis oil for lamps.
What happened with Amsterdam?
The recent popularity of Barcelona is not only due to its social clubs, the fact that rivals to Amsterdam is, in part, thanks to the Dutch goverment. Amsterdam, green paradise in Europe, pioneer in the battle for cannabis normalization, todays pushes hard against cannabis production. Along the recent years, a continuated conservative goverments put all its efford creating laws and bills to get coffee shops to close. Since 2013, many locals have been forced to close their doors due to new urban laws. On the other hand, a maximum amount of cannabis existing in a coffee shop of 500 grams, and a maximum of 5 grams of sale to the same customer; and the latests purposes of limiting the access to coffee shops only to residents, as it happens in the south of the country since 2013.
But there is even more. These actions not only affect coffee shops. Since 2015, a law known as "grow shop law", punishes any activity relationed with professional growth of marijuana. This aw, that does not ban grow shops from selling seeds, prohibits these type of shops to sell any gardening tool, no matter if they are fertilizers, lamps or grow tents, to people that may make a comercial use of them.
Barcelona's true situation
Despite changes in cannabis normalization, regulation is not adapted to this reality. The expansion of cannabis clubs in Barcelona made the City Council to step forward trying to regulate these spaces. This way, last May 2016, a regulative normative for cannabis associaciations was passed. Even though, this regulation, let many clubs to keep open, doe snot go much more further than few urban and architectonic limits, does not solve the alegal problems of these clubs, nor brings them rights nor liabilities; yields, worker's rights or depenalization of comerce belong to state, so the situation is still stopped.
In the meantime, news of association come and go. Just 10 few days ago we read in news the close of a cannabis associaciation, closed by court order, that was accused of engaging more than 100 tourists per day on the streets. The misconduct of some clubs reduces the effords and fight from CatFAC (Catalan Cannabis Associations Federation). Sites that present cannabis tours; webs that offer online forms to tourists to inscribe members, even before arriving to Barcelona; clubs that hire young people to capture clients on the streets; associations that allow to become a member in minutes; all of them take profit of the situation of associations to make bussinessm what is actually ilegal. Cannabis clubs belong to members, it is not allowed the sale nor the buy, they can not have lucrative purposes, and are limited to legal residants in Catalonia.
With no regulations mafia increases
A new regulation could solve some empty spaces, combat smuggling, and the black market, protecting at the same time workers and consumers. This way, making things right, Barcelona could become European Cannabis Capital.
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