Bristol Cannabis Club takes a trip to Gran Canaria and became a member of the The DuTsi Social Club, a Cannabis Social Club where the buds are half the price and strains like Sensi Star, Jack Herer, Chem Dawg and more are on the menu!
Gran Canaria is a quite small – only about 50 kilometres in diameter – island along the west coast of Africa. It
However, everybody is free to grow their own at home, and if you don’t bring them out, you can stay totally within the legal framework. The system of the Cannabis Social Club had been in existence in Spain for fifteen years – six years on the Canary Islands where individual members can share production tricks with each other and can take cannabis for medical purposes. This system works very well, since marijuana had been decriminalized the street trading was much decreased. But how does this work exactly?administratively belongs to Spain, but it constitutes an autonomous area. As regards the marijuana laws all works exactly the same way as in the mother country. Weed possession – of course consumption too – on the streets is considered illegal, imposed by the local police.
A nice local friend told me about the club and the membership, and said that he could recommend me as a member. I really liked the idea because I like to know what exactly I buy, just for this reason I didn’t prefer to gamble with in the most European countries. This friend said I should bring my documents (passport or ID), 30 euros and a passport-sized photo with me. Before entering he rang a number, and just passed to a small apartment – formed to half office, half chill-room. I felt the sweetish smell of marijuana around. Behind the desk there was a board with the current menu consisted of five strains. I got the club’s four-page policy that I carefully studied.
The DuTsi Social Club is a private club (DuTsi means healing herb in Tibetan language), members recommendation needed to enter. The annual membership fee is 30 euros and you get a membership card. The production sites are strictly confidential. All the taken grams are logged and signed by the members, so that’s the way the members withdraw their part of the cultivation. What an honesty isn’t it?
The club has very strict rules, those who breach can banned easily. The first and the most important rule is that it is prohibited to consume any other illegal substance in the club. You can only visit the property when the club is open which means 3-4 days a week. Any special and emergency cases go to consideration of the Board. The policy states that if you trade (sell outside) with DuTsi weed (or any other substances) you will be immediately banned. Who wants and is considered competent can join the grow crew however it is not an easy procedure one has to meet multiple criteria. Strict regulation is a requisite, however we can speak about legality, it still belongs to the grey market and the police likes to rebuke smokers. Until now the club haven’t got any problems with authorities.
It turned out that the operation of a club like this requires long preparations. To this group with around 70 members it took almost 3 years to get all the informations needed. Acquire the documents and licenses is not so complicated. They coordinated with other clubs, such as the CannaPharmacia from Lanzarote, AcmeFuer from Fuerteventura, and FAC (Federación of Cannabis Assosiation). They’re in connection with headshops, so we can also buy discounted vaporizers and other accessories via them.
The key word in the club is medication, this must be the reason why I stumbled upon so many older members during my visits. They have several therapies, which include cakes and cookies containing marijuana as well as a weed-cream excellent for arthritis and skin diseases. I found out, that they consider Rick Simpson as a role model. He was the first man to make special oil from weed which in the last ten years proved to be a great alternative solution in cancer treatment. This encouraged the club and they are currently trying to perfect a cannabis oil.
“On average, members can choose from 5-6 strains, all of them for 5 euros per gram.”
When I asked Flor and Diego – the founders of the association – about the most popular strains, they burst out in laughter and answered SensiStar, Blueberry and Afghan Skunk, but Jack Herer and Chemdawg are held in high esteem as well. On average, members can choose from 5-6 strains, all of them for 5 euros per gram. On one occasion you can take 90 grams a month, this is the limit but we can’t take it in one occasion! The members can retire only few grams a time, for the immediate use, that is daily consume.
The management has big plans for the future, they would like to have a bigger, well-functioning team, where they could create jobs and keep joint sessions, such as common planting, cultivation workshops, lectures and all that may be the part of a real social club.
On this tiny island there are 8-10 similar clubs, the number of members spreads from a few to hundred. The system operates very well, Spanish people are the proof that there is no need to be worried, because these people do not pursue any socially harmful activity, in fact a community building, cooperative behaviour should be quite an example to the whole world.
Bagolyur – Bristol Cannabis Club
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