27 November 2014

By Steve Elliott

The Navarre Parliament in Spain on Thursday approved an act legalizing and regulating collective cannabis clubs.

Members of the ILP (People’s Legislative Initiative), the group which pushed for this new law, followed the progress of the legislation from the visitors’ gallery, reports Noticias de Navarra.

The law’s aim is to establish general standards for “the establishment, organization and functioning” of cannabis clubs which serve consumers. It is intended to give “legal certainty” to the clubs’ existence and operation.

PSN party spokesman Cerdán Santos has favored regulating the clubs due to the “legal limbo” under which the clubs have existed through an ambiguity in the law.

Saying that the previous legal framework “ignores social reality,” Santos noted that prohibition of marijuana is not the solution, and said that citizens have already given the government a “warning” that they don’t want that.

BILDU party spokesman Victor Rubio said the effort main by promoters of the ILP in Navarre — through which they gathered nearly 10,000 signatures — was worth it to get this legislation before the House.

Rubio said it was a good idea to give legal existence to something that already exists, and that to “prohibit, ignore or look the other way will not solve any problem.”

Rubio has denounced the “repressive measures” suffered by some promoters of the initiative, who on the same day had defended the legislation in the House.

Members of Parliament agreed that prohibitionist policies have led to undesirable side effects such as adulteration of substances and benefiting black market traffickers, money laundering, and the high cost of police enforcement and courts.

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