The apparent contradiction comes from different legal questions
Cannabis in Spain is often described as ‘illegal but legal’. The phrase combines several questions that the law treats separately: whether a person commits a criminal offence, whether conduct can receive an administrative fine, whether an association may exist, and whether a medicine is authorised. An answer about one category does not settle the others.
This explains how an association can have statutes while some conduct connected with cannabis remains punishable. The organisation and the conduct are different legal objects.
Criminal law: the activity and its purpose matter
Article 368 of the Criminal Code addresses cultivation, manufacture, trafficking and other conduct promoting, favouring or facilitating illegal drug consumption, as well as possession for those purposes. Its scope is wider than a cash sale. Calling an arrangement noncommercial does not, by itself, resolve whether the conduct falls within the offence.
The legal assessment concerns the facts and the purpose of the activity. A membership label is not a replacement for that assessment.
Public space: an administrative offence can exist without trafficking
Article 36.16 of Organic Law 4/2015 covers unlawful drug consumption or possession in public places, roads, public establishments and collective transport, even without an intention to traffic. It classifies this as a serious administrative offence. Article 39 sets the general fine range for serious offences at €601–€30,000; the amount in a particular case is not automatically the maximum.
An administrative penalty is different from a criminal conviction. This distinction is why ‘not a trafficking offence’ does not mean ‘no legal consequence’.
Association law: registration concerns the organisation
Organic Law 1/2002 recognises the right of association and regulates constitutive documents, statutes and organisational duties. It also states that associations pursuing criminal purposes or using criminal means are illegal. Registration therefore does not grant a general exemption from criminal or public-security law.
The same distinction applies to a membership card: it records a relationship with an organisation, not a personal licence overriding national law.
Medical regulation: a separate pharmaceutical framework
Royal Decree 903/2025 establishes conditions for standardised cannabis preparations used in specified pharmacy-compounded formulations. It sets requirements for products, pharmaceutical manufacture and clinical responsibility. This is a regulated medical framework, not a general authorisation for all cannabis products or association activity.
Spain’s position is therefore better described through these concrete categories than through a single legal-or-illegal slogan. Criminal liability, public-space rules, organisational rights and medicines each have their own requirements.
Sources & further reading
General information, not individual legal or medical advice.