Cannabis culture in Spain has been disseminated and normalized through public events and specialized publications that have accompanied the activism. Since 1997, Cáñamo magazine has been the leading anti-prohibitionist voice, helping shape public opinion in favor of home cultivation and bringing the cannabis community together.
Other magazines subsequently emerged, such as Yerba (2001), Soft Secrets (Spanish edition, 2003), and Cannabis Magazine (formerly known as Spannabis Magazine). These publications helped normalize the language surrounding cannabis, presenting it first as another element of counterculture and later as part of a lifestyle.
Today, many of these publications have moved online. Specialized publications helped create an informed counterculture supportive of cannabis.
Spannabis, the Barcelona Hemp Fair, held its first edition in 2002. Over the years, it became the largest cannabis industry event in Europe, attracting thousands of international visitors. Spannabis (as well as other fairs such as Expocannabis in Madrid) has helped showcase the economic and cultural dimensions of cannabis, featuring stands from seed banks, vaporizer manufacturers, fertilizer companies, and other industry-related businesses.
These fairs have professionalized the image of the cannabis sector and given it greater business credibility, contributing to its social normalization.
Since the late 1990s, cannabis flower competitions and local cannabis cups have been held in Spain, organized by various associations. The Madrid Marijuana Cup (organized by the Madrid Association for Cannabis Studies, AMEC) was among the first. Later, similar competitions were held in Catalonia, Valencia, the Basque Country, Andalusia, and other regions.
Festivals and Activist Celebrations
These events brought the growing community together and provided opportunities for growers to interact with medical cannabis users. Celebrations such as the “San Canuto” festival (the secular patron saint of smokers, held every January 19) also became established.
The first documented San Canuto celebration took place in 1979 at the University of Deusto in Bilbao—an outrageous event at the time—and during the 1990s the festival subsequently became popular on university campuses in Madrid, Vigo, Barcelona, Seville, Alicante, and other cities.
These recreational gatherings, somewhere between ritual and protest, brought cannabis use out of the private sphere and gave it a festive public presence, helping to reduce stigma. The Global Marijuana March (MMM) takes place in cities around the world on the first Saturday of May. In Spain, in addition to Madrid (where it has been held since 1997), Barcelona, Valencia, Bilbao, and other cities also organize their own local marches around this time.
On certain occasions, public smoking demonstrations have been held in front of town halls, along with rallies in support of activists facing trial. For almost 30 years, marches have been held in Madrid, initially attracting a few hundred participants and, more recently, drawing several thousand people.
These demonstrations have been crucial in generating media coverage and keeping the demand for reform alive in the public sphere, even when political agendas have left little room for it.
