Spanish police take down 'Europe's biggest' cannabis farm
Spanish authorities have destroyed 415,000 Cannabis plants worth up to 100 million euros ($108 million) in an operation to dismantle what police said was Europe's biggest cannabis plantation.
Around 50 tonnes of the plants were being dried in a warehouse for processing into cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychoactive compound that is increasingly used to treat anxiety, insomnia and other ailments.
Located in the rural northern region of Navarre, the plantation was spread across 11 fields with a combined area of 67 hectares (166 acres), the Guardia Civil force said in a statement.
While CBD sale and consumption is legal across Spain and most of Europe, Spanish law still prohibits the cultivation of cannabis plants for anything other than industrial hemp uses, such as for textiles and seeds, according to the Agriculture Ministry.
Growing hemp for conversion into CBD or other derivatives remains a criminal offence. This is because it involves using the flower of the plant which is still regarded as Cannabis and illegal to use.
This is similar to here in Ireland where farmers are expected to grow the Cannabis plant but only use the Hemp fiber and seed from it, leaving behind the incredibly valuable flower with its many health giving compounds (cannabinoids, flavonoids and terpenes).
Three people were arrested as a result of the operation, which began in mid-2021 when police discovered one of the fields. The Guardia Civil said the plantation owner initially presented the farm as a legal operation to produce industrial cannabis but was later found to be planning to export large quantities to Italy and Switzerland for processing into CBD.
So even exporting the flower to be processed into non psychoactive CBD oil is frowned upon by the Spanish state. Could this be a big set back for the European cannabis industry or could this cloud have a silver lining? Could this get conversations happening at a European level, conversations that could lead to positive policy change which would allow the Cannabis industry to grow across Europe, creating jobs and high quality therapeutic products too.
I really hope the latter comes true and Members of European Parliament like Luke “Ming” Flanagan use this opportunity to get the finger out and start flying the flag for the Cannabis industry in Europe to grow.
