Is Medical Cannabis Reform On Spain’s Horizon?
Last month officials in Spain announced that they would be resuming discussions to pass a domestic medical cannabis regulatory measure. Currently, most of Spain’s domestic industry is completely unregulated, and legal medical cannabis is limited to exports.
According to a recent analysis, 84% of Spaniards support regulating medical cannabis per CIS data. A majority of lawmakers in Spain’s Parliament also reportedly support medical cannabis reform.
Unfortunately, historically there has existed a significant disconnect between cannabis opponents in Spain’s Parliament and the reality of what is truly going on in Spain’s communities. Spain’s cannabis consumption rate is greater than nearly every other nation on Earth, and hundreds of private cannabis clubs populate various parts of the country, yet meaningful reform and regulations have remained elusive.
The absence of a regulated domestic medical cannabis program has done nothing to deter people from consuming cannabis. Rather, it forces suffering patients to source their medicine from unregulated sources, which is far from an optimal situation. New reports surfaced this week that medical cannabis reform may be occurring in ‘the coming months.’ Per Business of Cannabis:
Spain’s newly appointed health minister has said that the country’s long-awaited medical cannabis law will be ready ‘in the coming months,’ as she makes good on her promise to kickstart progress.
Mónica García Gómez used her first appearance in Congress to reaffirm her commitment to establishing a medical cannabis framework in the country, more than a year after it was initially scheduled to be rolled out, laying out plans to ‘recover’ the conclusions that have already been approved by the lower house.
It remains unclear exactly when medical cannabis legislation will receive a vote in Spain’s Parliament, and for that matter, whether such a vote would prove to be favorable. However, momentum for such a measure does appear to be gaining steam in Spain, and it’s largely a matter of advocates in Spain’s Parliament overcoming the constant hurdles that are set up by opponents.
Lawmakers at the local and national levels need to work together in Spain to regulate medical cannabis products and commerce, rather than continue to stick their heads in the ground and let organized crime fill the void at the expense of public health outcomes.