Economy gone to pot? Then grow marijuana
Source: Agencies |
March 2, 2012, Friday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
A TINY Spanish village has voted to lease land for growing marijuana as a source of desperately needed revenue - a unique but legally questionable way of battling an economic crisis highlighted by staggering unemployment and a looming recession.
A government official with the National Drug Plan said such planting would be against the law and that prosecutors would intervene once a pot seed was sown.
The village of Rasquera, population 900 and in the northeastern Catalonia region, said its town hall councilors approved the plan on Wednesday in a 4-3 vote.
Rasquera is a picturesque hamlet at the foot of a mountain range in Tarragona province and has a castle dating to the 12th century.
The Barcelona newspaper La Vanguardia says it is the kind of village that is dying - its young people leaving for lack of work, and those left behind desperate for some lure to keep people put.
The idea is for private citizens to lease or lend land to town hall, which would then create a company to manage the land and lease it to an association of marijuana-smokers in Barcelona.
Under Spanish law, consumption in private of cannabis in small amounts is allowed. But growing it for sale, or advertising it or selling it, are illegal, an anti-drug official said.
The group that wants to acquire the marijuana, called ABCDA, said it will make an initial investment of 30,000 euros (US$40,000).
Spain's deficit for 2011 was 8.5 percent of GDP, and the country is now about to enter another recession, with the unemployment figure approaching 23 percent.
A government official with the National Drug Plan said such planting would be against the law and that prosecutors would intervene once a pot seed was sown.
The village of Rasquera, population 900 and in the northeastern Catalonia region, said its town hall councilors approved the plan on Wednesday in a 4-3 vote.
Rasquera is a picturesque hamlet at the foot of a mountain range in Tarragona province and has a castle dating to the 12th century.
The Barcelona newspaper La Vanguardia says it is the kind of village that is dying - its young people leaving for lack of work, and those left behind desperate for some lure to keep people put.
The idea is for private citizens to lease or lend land to town hall, which would then create a company to manage the land and lease it to an association of marijuana-smokers in Barcelona.
Under Spanish law, consumption in private of cannabis in small amounts is allowed. But growing it for sale, or advertising it or selling it, are illegal, an anti-drug official said.
The group that wants to acquire the marijuana, called ABCDA, said it will make an initial investment of 30,000 euros (US$40,000).
Spain's deficit for 2011 was 8.5 percent of GDP, and the country is now about to enter another recession, with the unemployment figure approaching 23 percent.
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