As well is known in Spain, a lot of marijuana is consumed but you know if you are breaking the law or not. We will explain it to you below.
To start, can I plant marijuana legally?
The current law says that it is illegal to plant marijuana as the law says in article 36, paragraph 18 which stipulates.
“The execution of acts of illicit planting and cultivation of toxic drugs, narcotics or psychotropic substances in places visible to the public, when they do not constitute a criminal offense.”
If we understand it, it indicates that it is illegal to plant in places of public view and that it could cause legal problems. However, if you plant it in places not visible to the public, whether for consumption or sharing, the legal problems could be smaller in scale.
The legal problems would be a fine ranging from 600 to 30,000 euros, in addition to losing what was grown.
So the next question would be: What marijuana is legal can I plant in Spain?
Legal marijuana would be that with THC less than 0.2%. (Tetrahydrocannabinol or THC is the psychoactive constituent of cannabis, in the end it is what makes it not give the effect of being smoked). This legal marijuana with low THC is known as CBD and you can buy it in various CBD Shops or Growshops and tobacconists throughout Spain.
As you can see, in the end you can smoke but it will not be the marijuana that most people want to smoke. In the end, you ask yourself, How can I smoke marijuana that is not CBD?
This is where cannabis clubs or associations come into play. These places are governed by their own rules and it must be taken into account that these clubs have the permits to exist, clearly following the laws.
Generally, to belong to these clubs you need to know a member who must endorse you. Therefore, if you want to join a club, do not hesitate to contact us to get a guarantee.
Where can you legally consume cannabis in Spain?
Spanish law draws a sharp line between public and private space, and that line is what really governs consumption. Holding or consuming cannabis in the street, in a park or in any other place open to the public is an administrative offence under the same Citizen Security Act quoted above, punished with fines in the same 601 to 30,000 euro band. Inside a private home, or inside the premises of a registered association, personal consumption between adults is not treated as a criminal offence. Public versus private is the single most important distinction to understand here.
How cannabis associations actually work
Cannabis social clubs are non-profit associations, not shops. They are entered in the regional register of associations, they have statutes, a board and an annual members’ assembly, and they run on a closed-circuit model: the association organises a shared cultivation for its own registered members and covers its running costs through membership fees. Nothing is advertised to the general public and nothing is supplied to anyone who is not a member.
Joining follows the same logic. You have to be of legal age, you need to be introduced by someone who is already a member, and you sign the statutes and a declaration of consumption when you register. Most associations also apply a waiting period between signing up and your first visit. Consumption then takes place inside the club’s own premises, which count as private space; taking anything out of the door puts you back in the public sphere and back under the fines described above.
What you find inside, and what stays outside
Once you are a member, the conversation is mostly about varieties: the difference between Sativa, Indica and Hybrid strains is the vocabulary every association uses to describe what it has available at any given time. Outside that private circuit the legal market is limited to low-THC products and to newer compounds such as HHC, whose legal status in Spain is far less settled than the shops selling it tend to suggest. A third and completely separate track is Spain’s new medical cannabis regulation, approved in October 2025, which runs through prescriptions and hospitals rather than through associations.
If you are travelling and want to see how the model works in practice, our directory of cannabis clubs in Mallorca lists the associations on the island along with their membership requirements. Responsible consumption among adult members, in a private space, is the whole basis of how these associations operate.
I hope that everything we have told you is helpful so that you take into account when you want to make your small plantation.
