{"id":4927,"date":"2026-05-25T19:52:59","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T17:52:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marisana.es\/a-brief-sung-history-of-cannabis-in-spain-2\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T11:53:36","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T09:53:36","slug":"a-brief-sung-history-of-cannabis-in-spain-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marisana.es\/en\/a-brief-sung-history-of-cannabis-in-spain-2\/","title":{"rendered":"A brief sung history of cannabis in Spain (2)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n\t
In this second installment, we continue moving forward in a concise and entertaining way through the cannabis history of Spain. In the previous and first article of this series<\/strong>, we stopped at the beginning of the 1970s, so let us continue our journey through time. Maestro, let the music continue!<\/h5>\n\n

In the 1970s, the hashish era begins<\/h2>\n\n

In 1973, Spain adapted its Penal Code to the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, and one year later the Supreme Court ruled that personal consumption did not fall under the so-called \u201ccrimes against public health.\u201d This Supreme Court decision made Spain, in 1974 and through one of history\u2019s ironies, the first European country to decriminalize consumption.<\/strong> But let\u2019s not fool ourselves: drugs were still illegal, and if you were caught using them in public, the Social Dangerousness Law could be applied to you; however, if you were caught consuming them in private, you avoided prison.<\/h5>\n\n
Although the social stigma still weighed heavily, identifying oneself as a joint smoker no longer carried legal consequences, and the anti-conventional, communal, and generational spirit associated with smoking hashish among a youth overflowing beyond the limits of the already dying Francoist regime gave \u201cmandanga\u201d a starring role in rumba music. For example, Los Chunguitos<\/strong> introduced themselves in 1974 with the fast-paced single \u201c<\/a>It Tastes Like Smoke to Me<\/a>\u201d.<\/em><\/strong><\/h5>\n\n
The little \u201ccandies\u201d of grifa and the pre-rolled firecrackers had given way to hashish joints. In the mid-1970s, growers in the Rif began producing hashish in the same way it was made in Lebanon, a hugely significant development that would eventually turn Morocco into the world\u2019s leading exporter of the concentrate.<\/h5>\n\n
Although consumption had been decriminalized, alongside its growing popularity the police exponentially increased their resources to pursue drug sales, making it more convenient for traffickers to import the substance concentrated into hash tablets rather than bulky bundles of grifa.<\/h5>\n\n
As a consequence, from then until the late 1990s, it became rare to see marijuana buds in Spain. The dominance of hashish would define several generations of Spanish joint smokers.<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n
There is the censored cover of Veneno\u2019s first album (1977), or Los M\u00e1nager de Huelva, whom Pata Negra sang about\u2014those disastrous managers whose blunders were explained in the pasodoble as the result of being wasted from alcohol and cannabis resin: \u201cMust be from so many mixed drinks and so much pollen, so much pollen<\/em>.\u201d<\/h5>\n\n
Some people mistakenly attribute to Fary<\/strong> the merit of creating the first song about joints in Spain, but \u201cLa Mandanga\u201d<\/em><\/strong>, as this rumba was called, dates from 1979. Rather than announcing something new, in prime-time television programs from the Valerio Lazarov era on Spanish TVE, it portrayed how widespread joint smoking had become among the youth of those years:<\/h5>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
\n
\n\t
After twenty minutes had passed, without knowing how or why<\/em><\/h5>\n\n
With the aroma of the smoke, I got high too<\/em><\/h5>\n\n
The youngsters told me, come here and sit down<\/em><\/h5>\n\n
I took a hit of the mandanguita and my shyness disappeared<\/em><\/h5>\n\n
Come on, give me the mandanga and forget the tea<\/em><\/strong><\/h5>\n\n
Give me the hash that makes me feel good<\/em><\/strong><\/h5>\n\n
Give me the dark one with the nice smell<\/em><\/strong><\/h5>\n\n
Because with marijuana, what a high<\/em><\/strong><\/h5>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>