Jail for organisers of 'cannabis research group'
Three Gandía men arrested after magistrates consider a cannabis advice association was also being used for drug dealing
THREE Gandia men who claimed to be researching the health benefits of cannabis have been jailed after magistrates considered they were also dealing.
According to a sentence of the Valencia provincial court, Agustín and Aurelio, both 36, and Juan Enrique, 21 – all Spanish and locally-born – had set up a society known as the consumers' association for researching therapeutic cannabis. The court ruled this had been a ruse to make their possession and use of the drug legal, since Spanish legislation allows for certain organisations of this type and does not criminalise personal use of cannabis on private property.
They were based in a warehouse on the Alcodar 'ITV' industrial estate, which they had rented in the name of the association since December 2013. It had two separate rooms equipped with halogen spotlights, extractor fans, ventilation fans and irrigation systems.
Police raided the premises in March 2017 and found 73 plants - enough to harvest a kilo of marijuana with a street value of about €5,600 – and 147 seedlings worth approximately €230.
The three men showed officers their association stataims. utes, which described it as a non-profit organisation established in order to 'advise members about scientific, medical and legal issues relating to cannabis', as well as to provide legal defence, give training courses and workshops, and stage exhibitions and talks of 'cultural or recreational interest'.
For these purposes, association members pooled resources to grow their own canabis plants collectively and the 'harvest' was then distributed between them.
But Valencia provincial court ruled that the three organisers 'had no control over the final destination' of the cannabis they had grown, and this situation posed 'a real and patent risk' of it either being consumed by 'others outside the 'membership', or of these members selling it on for profit.
Effectively, the three men overseeing the communal plantation for personal use had no control over whether the other people involved could be selling their own share of the harvest, and this meant that they were guilty of a public health offence by default.
They were also convicted of unlawful association, as police considered that the number of plants grown 'far exceeded what was needed' for the association to fulfil its Morteover, possession, cultivation or use of cannabis is illegal outside a private residence or where it is visible to the public even if it is only intended for personal use.
The defence had argued the accused thought they were acting within the law, since they had taken legal advice from a solicitor who was the sister of of one of them, and had also sought feedback from legal 'cannabis clubs'.
Agustín was been sentenced to three years in prison, and the other two to two years each, but it is likely that they will have to serve time as they have no previous convictions.