REPORT ON SPAIN

First published: 10 January 2013 – Updated: May 2017

Here you can find the names and addresses of Members of Parliament in Spain

Legislation on consumption and possession of drugs
In Spain the competence on drug policy is distributed between the regional and the national authorities. There are 17 different regions, some of them have more progressive policies than others.

Cultivation of cannabis is only considered a crime when it is considered to be for the purpose of trafficking.

Medical use of cannabis is being processed in the Senate.

Consumption of any drug is not sanctioned by law, only consumption and the possession in public can be sanctioned with an administrative sanction.

Cannabis Social Clubs
There are approx. 1000 Cannabis Social Clubs, whose members can have access to cannabis in an aloof way, many times even paying taxes on the activity.

User Rooms
There are user rooms in the whole country, specially in big conurbations.

Main political parties for the European Elections
Main political parties with representation in the European Parliament (2014 Elections)

  • PP
  • PSOE
  • Izquierda Plural (IU-ICV-EUIA-BA)
  • Podemos -* Coalición por Europa (CiU, PNV, CC and others)
  • UPyD -* Europa de los Pueblos (ERC, BNG, EA and others)
  • Ciudadanos

Position on drug policy reform
PSOE: individual members have declared to be in favour of decriminalisation.

Podemos includes in his general electoral program that they want to regulate the cannabis in the users frame to decriminalize the possession and to regulate the CSC.

Izquerida Unida included in its election programme the legalisation of cannabis and the depenalisation of other drugs. ICV – EuiA and ERC are in favour of regulation of CSC’s.

Ciudadanos wants to legalize cannabis in a commercial way.

Encod contacts in Spain:
Ana Afuera Gómez ana@encod.org
Urki Goni (Urjogabardea) –urkigoni@hotmail.com

REPORT ON SLOVENIA

Here you can find the names and adresses of Members of Parliament in Slovenia

Legislation on consumption and posession of drugs

Possessing drugs is forbidden by law. It depends of the policeman or the judge how to qualify the charge: it can be “only” minor offence but it can be criminal offence for which man can face several years in prison ( up to 7). It is kind of pervert that drug consumption is not an offence, but in order to consume drugs you need to posses them. It is a “Catch 22” law. This summer our government silently put more than 50 designer drugs on the list of drugs that are prohibited.

Cannabis Social Clubs

In 2011 two initiatives were formed to set up a CSC. None of them is currently acting legally. The activities are dispersed and certain degree of “rivalry” is present.
User rooms

At present there is no such room. Between 2004 and 2008 there was one in the Shelter for homeless drug users “ERNEST” in Ljubljana.
Main political parties for the European Elections

Three main political parties that are like to be in favor of more liberal laws are SD ( Socialni demokrati) and Zares ( also democrats). In the middle of the spectrum we have PS ( Pozitivna Slovenija) and SLS ( Slovenska ljudska stranka)  and on the right part we have SDS ( Social demokratska stranka) and NS ( Nova Slovenija). Other parties are less important:  DL (državljanska lista), etc

What is the position of these parties on:

Drug Policy Reform/ harm Reduction, health-based approach on drugs/ decriminalisation of cannabis and/or other drugs/ Cannabis Social Clubs

They do not discuss these issues publicly, so we can only assume what their positions are. There are some individual MP’s who had to admit that they smoked ( or smoke) Cannabis and that’s it.

What are the two most important threats on the political and legal front?

On both fronts we have status-quo for quite a long time. Public servants just do not want to react, as they do not want to loose their jobs with high salaries. On the other hand drug policies are in the last years moving into the field of medicalisation. Only civil society is reacting and trying to break this status quo. One important thing- in Slovenija we do not have true NGO’s. I mean 99% are financed by government and they dance on government rhythms.

What is the most promising or positive development concerning drug policy?
First signs of open debate are emerging. Perhaps the crisis is so hard that there is just no more viable founds for repression, but I still have doubt that prohibitionists will step back just like that.

Encod contact in Slovenia:

Janko Belin, Drustvo Areal, Ljubljana – belinjanko@gmail.com