Authorities in Barcelona have ordered the closure of 30 cannabis clubs in the Catalan capital. The city council’s deputy mayor for security, Albert Batlle, has been warning for months of his plan to close down the more than 200 clubs across the city.

Thirty of the clubs (sometimes also referred to as ‘associations’) have now received closure notifications from the council. This comes after Barcelona Urban Guard undertook an inspection campaign of around fifty clubs at the end of 2023 in order to see if they were abiding by council rules.

The authorities found that, perhaps unsurprisingly, narcotic substances were being consumed and acquired in them.

The clubs served with closure notices have a period of ten days to lodge appeals, but council sources assure El País that all 30 will be closed down by September at the latest.

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This comes amid a growing crackdown on cannabis clubs in Barcelona in recent years, with local authorities pledging to try and break the “cannabis tourism” model that has proliferated in the city in the last decade or so.

It is estimated that as many as 70 percent of the total cannabis clubs in Spain are located in Catalonia, with many of them in Barcelona.

Attempted regulation of the clubs, some of which operate in a legal grey area, some of which outright break the law, first began building momentum back in 2015 when the Xavier Trias government drew up regulations to curb the clubs.

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In 2016, Ada Colau’s new government established minimum distances – of between 100 and 150 metres – between cannabis clubs and playgrounds and schools. In June 2017 the Catalan Parliament put together a package of further regulations including ruling that clubs could not be for profit, members had to be of legal age, and that to join a club you had to be endorsed by a current member.

This last rule was brought in, in part, to try and keep the clubs for locals and avoid cannabis tourism, but many flout this rule and allow tourists in.

However, in July 2021 a Catalan court annulled Colau’s reforms and banned the “promotion consumption, sale and cultivation” of cannabis in clubs.

This ruling has formed the basis of Batlle’s crackdown in recent years. His mission of shutting down Barcelona’s cannabis clubs is typical of the cat and mouse-like relationship the police authorities have with cannabis clubs not only in Barcelona but across the country.

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Although there is some confusion among tourists, cannabis use in Spain is not legalised but decriminalised. It is not illegal to smoke cannabis in your own home, or in other private property such as a cannabis club or association. Public possession is illegal and subject of penalties.

Cannabis clubs are essentially a legal loophole that allows private member’s clubs where you can consume cannabis within the confines of the property.

They are non-profit organisations created within the ‘right of association’ contained in Article 22 of the Spanish Constitution and the Organic Law 1/2002.