Hostname: page-component-77f85d65b8-g4pgd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-03-28T13:35:57.347Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

DEFINING ‘PERSONAL CONSUMPTION’ IN DRUG LEGISLATION AND SPANISH CANNABIS CLUBS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 January 2019

Amber Marks*
Affiliation:
Lecturer in Criminal Law and Evidence and Director of the Criminal Justice Centre, School of Law, Queen Mary University of London, a.marks@qmul.ac.uk.

Abstract

This article provides an analysis of the normative framework for Spanish cannabis clubs by contextualizing it within the growing body of comparative constitutional law that recognizes legal obstructions to personal drug consumption as intrusions of the right to privacy. Article 3(2) of the United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, 1988 relieves State parties from the Article's obligation to criminalize drug possession and cultivation for ‘personal consumption’ when doing so would conflict with their constitution or basic concepts of their legal system. Spain relied on Article 3(2) in its decision not to criminalize conduct involving personal consumption. The Spanish judiciary has had to consider the legal implications of collective consumption and cultivation in the form of cannabis clubs. In addition to operating in a grey area of domestic law, Spain's cannabis clubs straddle the blurred boundary in international and European legal instruments between ‘personal consumption’ and ‘drug trafficking’. This article explores the theoretical and doctrinal implications of both Spanish law on cannabis clubs and comparative human rights law on drug use to outline the potential contours of a constitutionally protected zone of privacy pertaining to cannabis use in a social context.

Information

Type
Shorter Articles
Copyright
Copyright © British Institute of International and Comparative Law 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable