Spanish town votes for growing cannabis to pay off £1.25m debt
The settlement’s 800 adults, who live 160km (100 miles) south-west of Barcelona, voted in favour of the scheme to rent out 7ha (17 acres) of land to a cannabis consumers’ association.
Mayor Bernat Pellisa – who claims the scheme will create new jobs and reduce organised crime – believes the town council can pay off the debt within two years.
Speaking before the vote on Tuesday, he said: ‘It will have positive social and economic effects.
‘We want to put an end to organised crime, put an end to the black market and the underground economy.’
Some 56.3 per cent of the population voted in favour of allowing cannabis to be grown in the referendum.
Apparently the lawyers are arguing about it.
But if one town gets out of debt through legal cannabis, you can bet others will follow.
You’re up late tonite Pete… check my last comment in previous post.
allan,I feel that America’s days of “OK,I am busted,it is against the law and you caught me” are winding down.
Now comes the violence in America as we,the people,begin to fight back against the minority for our right to cannabis.
It is unfortunate that the majority doesn’t include the rich,,they are the ones with stocks in the prison industry and other industries that make their money as long as prohibition stays in place.
no doubt more information will emerge about the raid itself and its objective but once again lives have been lost enforcing laws about what adults can and cannot put in their bodies.
Oh no. We need to know more about this one. You know, very high risk warrants aren’t served by SWAT Team. They go about it completely differently. They will be very careful to take the subject down when away from their residence, and away from a defended position. When they took down the head of International Banditos Motorcycle Club, just four blocks from my house, they very deliberately lured him outside using a phony delivery ruse. They weren’t going to breach that door, no effin’ way. They weren’t interested in filling body bags with their own bodies.
They Use SWAT teams to serve low risk drug warrants, not for officer safety like they claim, but for LIVE FIRE PRACTICE. They do it because they know these people won’t put up a fight like an actual violent criminal might when cornered. That system may change.
I’d read in an earlier article that it needed 75% to pass…
Outlier, yes I think that was the case http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-04/D9U2AK1G0.htm
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I’m not sure how voting works over there, but the 75% requirement was by fiat of the town’s mayor, who also said that he would resign if it didn’t happen. Now that the vote has been held he seems to be backtracking from both positions. Of course he has the authority over whether or not he resigns but does he have the authority to declare a need for a 75% supermajority? Then to decide it isn’t needed after the vote has been held?
It’s a very confused system run by very confused people. It appears from presentment that the region is autonomous but the officials in Spain say they’re not going to let it happen because it’s against their law. One guy can declare that 75% is required but change his mind later, that’s even if he had the authority to call for a vote. It sure seems that they can do anything they want as long as everyone agrees with their decisions.
Regardless of the actual outcome though, that vote of 56% in favor is now written history whether it’s respected or not.
I’d be interested in visiting their town near harvest just to smell that smell.
my experience of spain is that mayors are notoriously corrupt and will grant permits to the highest bidder. most made fortunes during spains building boom/bubble in 90s and early 2000s and are no doubt weighing their options with any future cannabis boom. spains long hot summers and advanced veg cultivation industry would make it the obvious grow center for europe
They already grow some of Europe’s finest hash.
Clay I hadn’t heard that they produce hashish in Spain but it doesn’t surprise me. Latitude is all, and most of Spain shares the latitude of Northern California and northern Afghanistan, two of the best growing areas in the world. 37 degrees north (or south) seems to be the optimum.
Spanish law regarding peoples’ homes is very strict – a person’s home is his castle and the government can only enter on very limited circumstances – crimes of violence, basically.
What this means is that people are free to grow cannabis in their own homes with no interference from the police, despite the illegality of growing commercially.
I suspect this is a bit of a test case for a commercial operation that benefits from economies of scale. Hard to argue with the economics of it when the unemployment rate is 23% in Spain. The depression put an end to the other failed experiment in prohibition, after all.