The Constitutional Court annuls the Catalan law on cannabis associations
The Constitutional Court (TC) annuls the pioneering Catalan law on cannabis consumer associations approved by the Parliament in July 2017.
The grounds for annulment are the infringement of powers belonging to the State, primarily in criminal matters. This is the same criterion used to annul similar laws previously in Navarre and the Basque Country.
This leaves the nearly 300 cannabis consumer associations in a legal limbo in Catalonia. The Constitutional Court specifies that the clubs are engaging in the same overreach of authority as the very law that regulates them, meaning these entities now lose the legal backing they previously enjoyed, even though the ruling does not formally order their closure.
The law was annulled using the argument of the State Attorney's Office, which specifies that cannabis contains elements or active principles susceptible to therapeutic application, but strictly speaking it is not a medicine, but a substance classified as a narcotic under the State's criminal jurisdiction.
Finally, the ruling also specifies that the Law included a legal framework that is directly aimed at "organizing the shared consumption and cultivation of cannabis" or "the consumption, supply and dispensing" of this substance, something that is a state responsibility.
The law allowed up to 150 kilos per year.
The law regulated the conditions required to be a member, rights and duties, self-sufficiency, health and hygiene control measures as well as the powers of the Generalitat for inspection, control and sanctioning regime.
It also specified that the maximum annual production per association was 150 kilos of dried marijuana, and its distribution was 70 grams per month per member (20 grams for members between 18 and 21 years old). However, the possibility of increasing the maximum monthly amount was allowed for consumption for therapeutic purposes.
The court ruling rejects the arguments of the Generalitat (the Catalan government) that framed the regulation of cannabis associations within the autonomous powers regarding associations or consumer protection, as set forth in the Statute of Autonomy. According to the Supreme Court's doctrine, the autonomous powers regarding associations, as provided for in Article 118 of the Statute, or regarding health protection, as provided for in Article 162.3 b, are insufficient to support a regulation such as the one in question, which "regulates, with implications for the criminal offense defined in state legislation, the consumption, supply, and distribution of cannabis within the framework of the user associations to which it refers.".
Fountain: The Newspaper
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