People in Spain have increasingly turned to smoking cannabis, particularly in private clubs where it is allowed if not encouraged.
The popularity of such clubs has helped drive up cannabis use to the point where Spain now is believed to have the highest consumption of any country after Iceland and the US. It overtook the Netherlands to gain third position.
It is reported that 10% of the population regularly takes the drug.
Members-only cannabis clubs operate legally under Spanish law which permits marijuana to be grown and consumed for private use while outlawing trafficking and smoking it in public.
The number of clubs continues to increase, following the lead of Catalonia and the Basque Country which have 162 and 119 clubs respectively. The Canary Islands count 70 clubs, putting Madrid’s 40 in fourth place for communities with large numbers of registered marijuana groups.
Prices for cannabis in Spain are lower than in many other parts of Europe, according to the UN data.
