Organizing For National Cannabis Reform: A New Spanish Advocacy Group Gets Going
The Cannabis Industry Guild (or GIC) has just been formed to create an advocacy group for the nascent industry across the country
In yet more of a sign of how large the ripple effect of the German announcement to move forward on recreational cannabis has been in Europe, a group of Spanish entrepreneurs has just come together to form a new business group. According to Canamo.net, which broke the story, the members of the new Guild are coming together to create a new partnership with the government. Namely, one in which seed sales are legalized and that the grow shop sector be recognized as legitimate and regulated.
The Spanish industry has suffered several setbacks beyond Covid, most of which stem from the intransigence, so far, on a national, federal level, to consider even the widespread medical use of cannabis. Indeed, the regulatory authorities in Spain have only issued four EU GMP cultivation licenses, all of which are focused on export. In the meantime, the Club industry has evolved and taken its knocks. One of the cofounders of the same, Albert Tio, is currently doing jail time for his part in organizing the same after losing his appeal at the European level earlier this year.
Beyond this, of course, the Spanish industry is suffering all the problems still recognizable to the American state industry – namely police intervention and even problems with getting a bank account.
Organizing for National and Regional Cannabis Reform
It is very clear that the Spanish industry is not going to let the other conversations about reform lie unanswered, even if they come from outside the country. The GIC is working closely with the Guild of Grow Shops in Catalonia, a group in operation for over 15 years in the heart of the Spanish industry (in Barcelona). Beyond this, the group has formed an alliance with the European Observatory of Cannabis Consumption and Cultivation to move the conversation forward at a national and EU-wide level.
There are many reasons to believe that this forward motion might in fact this time be successful, and not just because of the new German Coalition government decision on the same. The model proposed by the GIC is very much what has been proposed now for Luxembourg. This is surely also not a coincidence.
Regardless, more reform is clearly on the way in Spain, driven undeniably by the forward motion in countries all around it.
Be sure to book your tickets to the International Cannabis Business Conference when it returns to Barcelona in March!