a brief history of cannabis policies in spain - Journal of Drug Issues

GAMELLA, JIMÉNEZ RODRIGO
1986). The “problem of drugs” had become an institution in the daily life of
Spaniards.
THE SUDDEN DISCOVERY: AIDS AMONG DRUG USERS
AIDS and HIV were unexpected consequences of the spread of intravenous
drug use in Spain. Less than a hundred drug users had been diagnosed by June
1986 (Secretaría del Plan Nacional sobre SIDA, 2003). But in the following years,
the rate of new cases accelerated, and the connection between sharing injecting
paraphernalia and the spread of AIDS became undeniably evident. By 1991, Spain
had the highest incidence of AIDS in Europe, and intravenous drug use became the
key aspect of the spread of the pandemic. Amazingly, this seems to have surprised
much of the health care system and the specific agencies that were dealing with
drug use. In the mass media, the connection between drugs and AIDS began to
gain ground in 1988. Some experts had alerted officials that AIDS affected “the
population of intravenous drug users (IDUs) in a different way than in other
European countries, except Italy” (Camprubí, 1986, p. 11). Around 1990, the
situation had assumed alarming proportions. Conservative estimates indicated that
more than 100,000 people were infected (Downs, Heisterkamp, Brunet, & Hamers,
1997; Castilla et al., 1997), and, depending on the area, most samples showed a
presence of the HIV virus in 40% to 80% of IDUs (Hernández-Aguado, Aviñó, &
Pérez-Hoyos, 1999). Moreover, it was mainly in connection with injecting drug
use that AIDS was being transmitted to newborn children and to partners of IDUs.
Spain was confronting a major health crisis. Despite the urgency of the situation,
once again crucial years passed before more appropriate drug policies were
implemented. These lost years may have been very costly in terms of people infected
and lives lost.
DECREASE IN CANNABIS CONSUMPTION
The use of hashish and marijuana seems to have decreased in the second half of
the 1980s. In 1993, a major review of illicit drug use in Spain concluded that
cannabis “was the illegal drug most often used, and more available, but in the
1980s, the prevalence of its consumption diminished among the general population,
among those admitted for treatment for drug dependence, and perhaps among high
school students.” (Barrio, de la Fuente et al., 1993, p. 348). Accordingly, demands
of treatment for cannabis-related problems remained very low, between 1% to 2%
of all those related to illicit drugs (Barrio, de la Fuente et al.), and many of these
referrals might have been made by poly-drug users or by parents alarmed by the
smoking habits of their offspring, rather than by the users themselves (Gamella &
Jiménez Rodrigo, 2003). The image of hashish and marijuana may have been tainted
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