In brief

  • The main laws on cannabis in Spain are national. They're the same in Torremolinos as in Benalmádena, and as anywhere else in the country.
  • Using cannabis isn't, in itself, a crime, in Torremolinos or anywhere else in Spain. Trafficking it, or otherwise promoting, encouraging or facilitating its illegal consumption, is (Criminal Code, Article 368).
  • On the street, on the beach at La Carihuela or on the bus, using or carrying cannabis is a serious administrative offence, and it can lead to a fine.
  • No national law, and no regional law in force, regulates cannabis associations. Being entered in a register of associations does not authorise any activity involving cannabis.
  • Whether you're in Torremolinos or Benalmádena, driving with drugs in your body is banned, prescribed medicines aside when you're still fit to drive, and driving under their influence is a crime.

The same national law on both sides of the boundary

Torremolinos and Benalmádena sit side by side on the coast, and the line between them is easy to miss. Head west from La Carihuela towards Puerto Marina and, somewhere along the way, you've crossed it. When it comes to weed, does anything change when you do?

Not as far as national law goes, and that's where the main rules on cannabis come from: the Criminal Code (Código Penal), the public safety law and the traffic law. They apply in the same way across the whole of Spain.

The starting point is Article 368 of the Criminal Code. It makes it a crime to traffic in illegal drugs, to "otherwise promote, encourage or facilitate" their illegal consumption, or to possess them for those purposes. Using cannabis is not, in itself, a criminal offence in Spain. That doesn't mean there are no rules: using or carrying it in public is an administrative offence, as the next section explains.

Under the Spanish Constitution, criminal law is a matter for the State alone. When Navarre and Catalonia passed regional laws on cannabis associations, the Constitutional Court struck both down for straying into it (rulings 144/2017 and 100/2018).

There is no national law regulating cannabis associations, and no regional law in force that does so. That includes Andalusia. A Basque provision survives only on a narrow reading (ruling 29/2018): it simply requires associations of adult cannabis users to collaborate with the health authorities, and nothing in that ruling gives associations a basis for supplying cannabis to their members.

This guide covers national law, not local bylaws: for those, the town hall is the place to ask. For the full national picture, read our guide Is weed legal in Spain?

Streets, beaches and buses

Spain's public safety law (Organic Law 4/2015, Article 36.16) makes it a serious administrative offence to use or carry illegal drugs in public places, on public roads, in public establishments or on public transport, even if the drugs aren't intended for trafficking. Leaving behind the things you used for it in those places counts as well.

In Torremolinos, that covers most of the places where you spend your day:

  • the streets and squares of the town centre, Calle San Miguel included
  • the beach and the promenade at La Carihuela, and every other beach in town, from El Bajondillo to Playamar
  • beach bars, restaurants and terraces
  • the bus and the train, and their stops and stations

Carrying is enough: having cannabis on you in one of these places is an offence even if you aren't using it and it's only for yourself. An administrative offence isn't a crime, but it can lead to a fine. If you're not sure whether somewhere counts as public, assume that it does.

Owners, managers and people in charge of public premises who allow drug use there, or who don't take reasonable care to prevent it, also commit a serious offence (Article 36.19). So on a terrace or at a beach bar, the person using cannabis isn't the only one who can be sanctioned.

None of this changes at the municipal boundary: a beach in Benalmádena is a public place just as La Carihuela is. Our guide Is weed legal in Benalmádena? covers that side of the line.

What a cannabis association is, and what it isn't

A cannabis association, often called a cannabis social club, is set up as a private, non-profit association of adults. Its members join in their own name and agree to a shared set of rules, and its premises are private, not open to the public.

A cannabis association has no law of its own. Being entered in a register of associations does not authorise any activity involving cannabis. Under Instruction 2/2013 of Spain's State Public Prosecutor's Office (Fiscalía General del Estado), prosecutors look at what an association actually does, not only at what its statutes say.

Article 369.1 treats the conduct covered by Article 368 as more serious when it takes place in establishments open to the public, by the people who run them or work there, or when drugs are provided to anyone under 18.

The courts have looked at associations directly. In September 2015 the full criminal chamber of the Supreme Court held that the organised, ongoing distribution of cannabis among a large association open to new members falls within Article 368 (ruling 484/2015). The Constitutional Court later annulled that conviction on procedural grounds (ruling 146/2017), and in 2018 the Supreme Court acquitted the same defendants because it could not rule out that they genuinely believed they were acting lawfully (ruling 91/2018). It repeated, however, that the conduct itself falls within Article 368.

None of these rulings declares that kind of activity lawful. So an association isn't a way around the law. Our guide How do cannabis clubs work in Spain? covers the rulings in more detail.

Between Torremolinos and Benalmádena

Honey Weed Club is in Benalmádena, not Torremolinos. We're on Avenida Antonio Machado, near Puerto Marina, on the side of town that looks towards Torremolinos. The nearest train station to the club, El Pinillo, is in Torremolinos itself.

The M-110 bus and the C1 train both run between the two towns, and our Visit page has the stops and journey times. Wherever you get on or off, the journey is public from start to finish, and the rules above go with you: on board, at the stop or the station, and along the seafront. Crossing the boundary doesn't change any of that.

Nor does membership of an association. At Honey, membership is for adults aged 18 and over, with their original identity document, and consumption is on the premises only: step out onto Avenida Antonio Machado and you're on a public road, under the same rules as everyone else. See how membership works.

Driving

The traffic rules don't change at the boundary either. Whether you're driving in Torremolinos or in Benalmádena, Royal Legislative Decree 6/2015 (Article 14.1) bans driving with drugs present in your body, even if you feel fine. The only exception is medicines taken on prescription for therapeutic purposes, when you're still fit to drive.

Checks use a saliva sample (Article 14.3), and driving under the influence of drugs is a separate crime under Article 379.2 of the Criminal Code.

This applies to anyone driving in Spain, whether you live in Torremolinos or you're here for a week. If you've used cannabis, don't drive.

Live in Torremolinos? Here's how to reach the club.

Sources

All sources are official Spanish documents, in Spanish.

This is general information about Spanish law, not legal advice. Laws and court rulings change. For your own situation, please speak to a qualified lawyer.

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