Cannabis Social clubs regulation as an opportunity of health education and harm reduction.

Tre Borràs Cabacés, Antoni Llort Suárez, Sara Ferrando Esquerré, Àlex Pérez Folch, Maria Paraire Andrés, Dàlia Català Pagès

In Spain, the country with the highest prevalence of cannabis use in Europe, and specifically in Catalonia, the system of cannabis clubs is becoming a phenomenon that has exceeded the legal reality. In April 2016 a Popular Legislative Initiative (ILP) was approved http://www.larosaverda.org/es/ forcing the government to take action and write a law to regulate the activities of clubs. Meanwhile more than 500 CSC are already in operation in Catalonia.

The great diversity of clubs and the even greater opportunity their activities present to harm reduction services makes us reflect on what should be the actions and interventions of support and backing of this type of activity.

On behalf of a service for people with drug problems and harm reduction we consider the following options:

How can we build bridges between people seeking treatment with cannabis and CSC? How can we give advice according to the type of products offered and clubs?

What kind of effective relationship between these two realities can be installed to provide help to those who need it?

What harm reduction discourse do we have before minors that present consumption problems and will not have access to CSC?

What kind of training we offer in damage reduction to CSC? What kind of training can they offer us?

In any case, we can start designing research protocols to evaluate the implementation process of such imminent clubs.