Cannabis activist sentenced to five years for pardon

In the absence of specific regulations on cannabis consumption clubs, the courts have been the ones that in recent years have centralized, not without controversy, the debate on their legitimacy and functioning. Are they legal or not? Can your partners grow plants for their own consumption without being considered traffickers? Where is the line that separates supply from drug trafficking?

In this equation - for him limbo - Albert Tió , one of the country's leading cannabis activists, has been trapped since six years ago a marijuana crop was intervened by the Barcelona user association of which he was secretary and had 1,000 partners. Tió must serve five years in prison according to the judgment of the Barcelona City Court, which was later confirmed by the Supreme Court .

He seeks pardon and does it in extremis because it is already out of time. Since last Thursday, he may be required at any time to enter prison. "I am not a drug trafficker, I am an activist," he says. The Ministry of Justice has yet to comment.

Tió, who is also president of the Federació d'Associacions Cannàbiques Autoregulades de Catalunya and has a degree in Political Science and Sociology, was convicted of a crime against public health and another of illicit association for the 34 kilos of marijuana they found in a ship de L 'Hospitalet de Llobregat to supply the association. Next to him, other members of the group sat on the bench.

His lawyer, after the conviction of the Supreme Court, Héctor Brotons of the Brotsanbert law firm (together with Andres Berriol and Sonia Olivella) rejects the merits of this ruling, considering that the project of self-organization of cannabis consumption that his client represented is "very far" of the crimes that were imputed to him and that can take him to jail. "Also," he says, "the plants were not heavy because they included the leaves that, as everyone knows, do not smoke."

"Given the advancement of cannabis regulation in other countries around us, we cannot tolerate these situations, which lead users and activists for regulation to prison, even more so when the arrival in Spain seems to be near comprehensive regulation of cannabis uses, "he argues.

The lawyer has filed an appeal, which is pending admission for processing, before the Constitutional Court, considering that Tió's fundamental rights have been violated. “Firstly, the right to the free development of personality is violated, and secondly, the right to equality is insofar as cannabis users are treated differently than, for example, those who consume alcohol or tobacco », he explains.

In his opinion, the conviction also attacks the right of association and that of health, understanding that these groups are the way to dispense cannabis safely.

“The cannabis associations are a safe place so that, among other things, patients who do not have access to cannabis can do so in an informed way and without risks to their health. In fact, in the Barcelona association of which Tió was a member, there was a doctor ». What Tió and his partners were pursuing with the club they devised in 2011 was a point to drive consumption away from the black market.

Brotons also draws attention to, he insists, the "disproportionality" of the sentence. "They condemn more people who stand up and have everything in order, we must remember that Tió had the corresponding licenses from the Barcelona City Council , than the traffickers themselves."

Tió was one of the promoters of the popular initiative that gave birth to the cannabis club law that passed the Parliament of Catalonia in 2017, although it was later declared unconstitutional for invasion of state powers. "It must be remembered that nine autonomous communities have approved laws or non-legal proposals that advocate the regulation of therapeutic cannabis and most of them also in relation to its use without further ado," says Brotons.

At 53 years old, what worries him most about his possible entry into prison are his 16, 5 and 4 children and the way in which he will have to explain it to them. The looming threat of loss of liberty has sparked a resounding wave of support from the cannabis movement in Spain, which has organized to collect signatures. Tió's lawyer returns to the sentence and reiterates: "it represents a clear legal step back for an associative model that continues to be criminally prosecuted, despite having been a regulatory model in other countries."

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