Associations of cannabis consumers have to be closed

The law passed by Catalan parliament about the Cannabis Consumers` Associations is declared unconstitutional, therefore, void, by the plenum of the Spanish Constitutional Court.

The Court considers that this law deals with criminal matters reserved to the state. It claims that cannabis is not strictly a drug or a medication, but a substance classified as narcotic. Therefore, it can’t be relegated to the competence of Autonomous Communities in the field of associations or healthcare.

In addition, the Catalan law directs and articulates the shared consumption and cultivation of cannabis, recognizes establishments` functions of collection, acquisition and subsequent distribution, hence incurs in the infringement of jurisdiction, with incidence on the element of criminal offence regulated by the state legislators. For this reason, this court declares the Catalan law unconstitutional and associations of cannabis consumers – illegal.