Police arrest cannabis-use crusaders
Five linked to Catalan initiative held on suspicion of drug trafficking
Police on Thursday arrested the administrator and four other workers of an association seeking to promote the cultivation of marijuana in the town of Rasquera in the northeast province of Tarragona. They are suspected of being involved in drug trafficking.
The five were released on Thursday and ordered to appear before a judge to make a declaration, the police said Friday. They were arrested after a raid on the association's headquarters in Barcelona. Around 2,000 euros in cash, as well as 1.3 kilos of marijuana, were found.
According to police, there were about a dozen people in the premises either waiting to buy the drug or in the process of smoking it. The center was sealed by the authorities.
Rasquera town hall has passed an ordinance allowing the cultivation of marijuana on government land in an effort to raise money. The district attorney's office in Tarragona is looking into the plan.
Pro-marijuana consumer associations claim the law allows them to grow the drug for medicinal purposes.
