Opening a
cannabis club in Barcelona isn’t difficult, really. You just need to follow certain official procedures, starting with creating a cannabis association. Next, you need to find a location for your association, and secure a dispensary license. Read on for the details on how to start a weed club.
Legal by Association
If you checked out my post
Are Weed Clubs Legal in Barcelona?, you already know what an association is. In short, it’s turning your smoking buddies into an official club, like the
Sons of Anarchy. That's step one of the process. Once you have an association, you need to find it a home, which is — you guessed it — step two.
Home Is Where You Stash Your Stash
An association is like a person: it has needs, and one of them is an address. In Spain, an association is its own entity with its own ID number — it needs to live somewhere. Claiming your club meets at the park won’t work. You can’t receive mail at the park. Also, the location has to be accessible to all members during club hours, so using your house address could be a little problematic.
Your best bet is to rent what's known as a ‘local,’ which is basically a private space. Office space works great.
License to Fly
Now comes the tricky part. Honestly, this should be step two, but legally you can’t get a dispensary license without a government-approved local to begin with (Spain is really weird when it comes to interpreting these laws, so bear with me).
Government approval comes with so many details, that this is what nowadays makes it impossible to open a club from scratch. A dispensary license is similar to a liquor license. It has the usual requirements that bars and public facilities have, like accessibility ramps for the disabled, and men’s and women’s restrooms. And being a club dedicated to the sole purpose of smoking, air extraction and filtration is very important. Can’t be getting the neighbors high for free, can we?
Finally, your location is going seal the deal, and can often be a hindrance in getting approved for a smoker’s club license. How far from the nearest dispensary is your club going to be? How far from a school or park? How close to a government building are you? Are you near any churches? These factors make or break the deal, so choose your location wisely.
