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Spanish Cannabis Club. HOW TO OPEN?

kuko

New member
Hello guys, iam interested to open cannabis club in spain, but i got stuck with information in internet.

Anyone knows more? About everything how to start?
 

kaochiu

Well-known member
Veteran
There are specialized lawyers that can set the technical bits. You can se them advertised in some spanish forums. As it is a NGO, making a bussiness out of it means bending the law, and therefore walking on a very narrow path. Nobody knows for sure what will be the outcome for many of those clubs that run openly as a bussiness (about 90% of them).
Location is also paramount, as every region holds its own stance towards cannabis. Catalunya being probably the most lax, it also means fierce competence. It depends on how many members, some are just a few guys meeting for having a few joints in peace (the actual point of a CSC) and others have thousands of members, many of them tourists.
How to provide for a lot of people is as complicated as it sounds, it's not like you go to the cash'n'carry for supplies or set up a big greenhouse for production. Connections are necessary and so is security. Big cannabis providers are not exactly run by hippies anymore.
So, what sort of club you're after? Are you actually are after a law abiding CSC with ten or twenty friends/members? That's easy.
Think about there are like 1000+ clubs in Spain and plenty of them have had police busts at some point. So, lawyers need to be close.
Legally, CSC's have nothing to do with coffee-shops.
 

ChaosCatalunya

5.2 club is now 8.1 club...
Veteran
This, plus...

All regulation changes, and proposals have been towards regulating the scene ever more tightly, making it harder to make any black money from the club

For some reason they are turning a blind eye to illegal clubs, most of the time.. but getting really heavy seemingly at random.

As I have said to most people, stay well away.
 

kuko

New member
First of all thank you for your attention.

What i found is FAC information, but they not answered to my email yet.

About lawyers yes i understand this is necesary, can you guys reccomend me mayby lawyer?

Which city i dont know right now,but for sure iam going to start living in Spain for that reason, i speak spanish not bad so will try to do a lot by my self.

kaochiu as i said iam going to live in spain just for those clubs,iam going to invest money so this is my plan,to make good csc with time and make money.

Have some friends in spain ofc,going to find lawyers,but cant find all information how everything starting.

Information in www.fac.cc is correct? http://www.fac.cc/cuanto-cuesta-crear-un-csc/
 

ChaosCatalunya

5.2 club is now 8.1 club...
Veteran
You need to have at least 100K of cash to burn, Lawyers, architects, builders, licences, it is incredibly complex, and expensive to do.
 

kuko

New member
Iam not asking this thing, iam asking where starts everything?
Chaos you have csc? a lot of people doing that and i know few people who doing that and goes very well..

what you saying important is only 2 things: lawyers and licences... other is nothing
 

ChaosCatalunya

5.2 club is now 8.1 club...
Veteran
Do you have over E100,000 spare ?

Yes, I founded a Medical Club here 7 years ago and watched several friends go through the process back then, and now, today, that is why I recommend it for almost nobody.
 

kaochiu

Well-known member
Veteran
As the link from the FAC says, registering an association of any kind, CSC's included, costs about 50€. Requisites are simple, President+Secretary+Treasurer, Statutes that can be copied or adapted, a forwarding address and a few months to wait for the registry to be official. After all, you're only saying you exist. Same goes if you want to set up a "Friends of Satan" society, just don't forget the fifty quid. That's the actual start.
FAC reccomends to avoid paying set up fees to cheeky agencies and doing it yourself, but also FAC is intended for activists and their explanations include things like "combat discriminating government", so... From the bussiness point of view, i know i wouldn't move a finger without a proper legal frame and pragmatic considerations.
A license to operate can be refused after long waiting periods for menial and arguable details. I suppose it's a market built around all that, but i don't have references. Patience unavoidable.
If you know people who are running a successful CSC, your best bet is to copy it from scratch. Broadly speaking, seems that once established is easier to operate if you're a foreigner, that too, but that's just a perception.
Bear in mind that Spain has had close to 25% unemployment and an estimated 3-4 million regular tokers. If there was a guideline, the 1000+ clubs would be 100.000. Something is stopping that to happen.
As for the relevance on which area of Spain you're looking for, (as said, there are significant different approaches from councils), best is to get a local lawyer. Google "cannabis abogados" and there you are, first few ones are from Madrid, BCN and Bilbao. I can't reccomend any in particular.
People have the right to learn through their own mistakes and on the other hand there's always a chance to hit the jackpot, regardless statistics. As you said, some of them seem to be doing pretty well. However, i think a bit like Chaos, so it wouldn't be honest to encourage the idea, but best wishes with it and hope i'm wrong.
 

ChaosCatalunya

5.2 club is now 8.1 club...
Veteran
I would be happy to set up a friends of Satan club with you mate, but the PP do a pretty good job already ;)

Yes, you are absolutely right that you can set up the paperwork side for a virtual club easily and cheaply, but as you hint at, local regulations are a bitch.

I have seen clubs putting in e20K worth of disabled access ramps, plus there are lifts, toilets... plus fire regs, filtration, and 101 permits, certificates, it all eats money. Now in Barcelona you cant open within 100m of a School as the crow flies, so there are only 8 or 9 roads left in central BCN that you can put a club on.
 

kaochiu

Well-known member
Veteran
100k to open a shop in BCN expensive? It's in the top ten visited cities
in the planet. 100K buys you a coffee in the Ramblas. In any case, it's not only about money or belonging to the Friends of Satan, although it helps. Burocratic patience, burocratic luck, politics, choice of location, personal infrastructures... those things apart from the costs.
Some succeed, why not? It's a cash bizz, that too.
 

Palindrome

King of Schwag
100K € or $ is not expencive, one would figure anyone who wanna open a shop of any kind. In ANY larger city, will need at least a 100K for lawyers, permits and location alone.
 

v1ru5

Active member
The problem with opening a cannabis club in Spain at the moment is the fact that now cannabis is illegal, since January.

You can find more with google but for example sensi has posted an article about it: https://sensiseeds.com/en/blog/new-decisions-constitutional-court-end-cannabis-tolerance-spain/

And the front image should already tell you the situation:

The-end-of-tolerance-towards-cannabis-in-spain-sensi-seeds-1920x1013.jpg
 

Mustafunk

Brand new oldschool
Veteran
What happened with the Cannabis Clubs here was anticipated by many, when all this huge clubs with hundreds or even thousands of members started fucking around and precipitating everything. It was actually a deja-vu of what happened in Swizterland in the late 90s. With our conservative government and outdated legal system, this would happen sooner or later. They were just waiting for us to take the wrong steps.

We used to have relaxed laws and the private Cannabis Association model has been working for many years, until the greedy people and foreigners started their narc-operations all over the biggest cities and wanted to turn Spain into the new weed tourism spot, advertising it as the new and hottest alternative to Amsterdam. The problem is that the coffeeshop/dispensary concept they were trying to import into Spain was actually illegal here, while it was actually legal in Holland. Clubs needed to be private, non-lucrative, closed and controlled to make it work. At least while the Cannabis laws don't change worldwide.

This actually hurted the whole movement so much. But the clubs were making so much noise (like when the idiots were advertising all over the big cities in order to attract canna-tourists, importing buds from California or just doing everything for the money) that the national Supreme Court had to put a stop on it, ruining everything up for everyone, including the humble people who only wanted to fight for the movement and whose goals weren't actually making money but normalizing a situation we needed to regulate since a long time ago.

Now the time for the big Cannabis clubs ruled by narc-wannabes and shameless greedy people has come to an end. The smaller and serious Cannabis associations may still hardly survive but that's what you get when a bunch of idiots are pushing the limits way too much. Even the National Federation of Cannabis Associations became a joke nowadays. They actually had a great chance to make an impact on the laws but they actually wasted it because they were just a bunch of greedy people trying to become legal dealers like the 90% of Clubs here.

I guess it was nice while it lasted... at least for those who made millions in Spain out selling weed "legally"! For the rest, nothing will change. Anyway the real front of fight nowadays should be the regulation for anyone who wants to grow their own medicine or cherished flowers at home, without fearing police raids or having to defend himself at the court. Thats where the real fight is.

Cheers.
 

kaochiu

Well-known member
Veteran
I agree in essence with what you say, and i talk as someone who never joined a club and keep weed and bussiness in different planets. But i'm also quite pragmatic, and greed is like running water that enters every available hole, whereas tokers rights are science fiction in today's world politics.
In my book, i hid my plants 35 years ago and i hide my plants today, only deeper. I'm not into conspirations but whatever is the roadmap for weed in social laws, home growers for self supply is not necessarily a stopover.
But i can't blame or judge anybody. It's futile for it's unavoidable. Question is, why the bussiness is not controlled by locals? Answer is, we're too romantic.
I don't envy them, though, is getting an ugly trade waiting for its own Garzon. 120 sq cm boxes hopefully will be spared. Cops still need a registry judge order to enter your property.
 

andl

Member
What happened with the Cannabis Clubs here was anticipated by many, when all this huge clubs with hundreds or even thousands of members started fucking around and precipitating everything. It was actually a deja-vu of what happened in Swizterland in the late 90s. With our conservative government and outdated legal system, this would happen sooner or later. They were just waiting for us to take the wrong steps.

We used to have relaxed laws and the private Cannabis Association model has been working for many years, until the greedy people and foreigners started their narc-operations all over the biggest cities and wanted to turn Spain into the new weed tourism spot, advertising it as the new and hottest alternative to Amsterdam. The problem is that the coffeeshop/dispensary concept they were trying to import into Spain was actually illegal here, while it was actually legal in Holland. Clubs needed to be private, non-lucrative, closed and controlled to make it work. At least while the Cannabis laws don't change worldwide.

This actually hurted the whole movement so much. But the clubs were making so much noise (like when the idiots were advertising all over the big cities in order to attract canna-tourists, importing buds from California or just doing everything for the money) that the national Supreme Court had to put a stop on it, ruining everything up for everyone, including the humble people who only wanted to fight for the movement and whose goals weren't actually making money but normalizing a situation we needed to regulate since a long time ago.

Now the time for the big Cannabis clubs ruled by narc-wannabes and shameless greedy people has come to an end. The smaller and serious Cannabis associations may still hardly survive but that's what you get when a bunch of idiots are pushing the limits way too much. Even the National Federation of Cannabis Associations became a joke nowadays. They actually had a great chance to make an impact on the laws but they actually wasted it because they were just a bunch of greedy people trying to become legal dealers like the 90% of Clubs here.

I guess it was nice while it lasted... at least for those who made millions in Spain out selling weed "legally"! For the rest, nothing will change. Anyway the real front of fight nowadays should be the regulation for anyone who wants to grow their own medicine or cherished flowers at home, without fearing police raids or having to defend himself at the court. Thats where the real fight is.

Cheers.


this is good spoken!


but i dont think thats bad at all, look at the american/canadian growers, havin troubles big players ruling the whole business and get little ones out of their way.
the big companies took over.

here (in europe) we may go a diffrent way....


what you said would be great for local growers, when it's tolerated, but not in that kind of dimension, that would be best for small local breeders, groups and of course quality and genetics.
 

Janari

Member
There are specialized lawyers that can set the technical bits. You can se them advertised in some spanish forums. As it is a NGO, making a bussiness out of it means bending the law, and therefore walking on a very narrow path. Nobody knows for sure what will be the outcome for many of those clubs that run openly as a bussiness (about 90% of them).
Location is also paramount, as every region holds its own stance towards cannabis. Catalunya being probably the most lax, it also means fierce competence. It depends on how many members, some are just a few guys meeting for having a few joints in peace (the actual point of a CSC) and others have thousands of members, many of them tourists.
How to provide for a lot of people is as complicated as it sounds, it's not like you go to the cash'n'carry for supplies or set up a big greenhouse for production. Connections are necessary and so is security. Big cannabis providers are not exactly run by hippies anymore.
So, what sort of club you're after? Are you actually are after a law abiding CSC with ten or twenty friends/members? That's easy.
Think about there are like 1000+ clubs in Spain and plenty of them have had police busts at some point. So, lawyers need to be close.
Legally, CSC's have nothing to do with coffee-shops.


Do you know somebody personally who is dealing thatkind of legal side ?
Is that illegal thosedays or im wrong ?
 
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