Pablo Iglesias: “Criminalising Someone for Smoking a Joint Seems Idiotic to Me”

The political party Podemos was set up in Spain at the beginning of 2014, and since then it has been a resounding success. This has turned it into one of the country’s main political forces and a great threat to the two-party system. Pablo Iglesias is the leader and the party’s most visible face; he is a left-wing politician, different in his approach, close to citizens and one of the few politicians that dares to talk about cannabis.

He has just done so again on the well-known television programme Hormiguero” (The Anthill), one of the Spain’s most watched night time shows. It was the presenter, Pablo Motos, who started the debate with a direct question. “Are you going to legalise cannabis?” Although the politician did not give a straightforward answer, he did not hesitate to offer his opinion regarding the matter.

Among other things, he stated that he is not currently a consumer (although he was when he was younger); however he does like to drink certain alcoholic beverages from time to time. Faced with the fact that he can consume those drinks, he stated than “criminalising someone for smoking a joint seems idiotic to me”.

Furthermore, he added that he was bearing in mind the examples of other places, such as Oregon and Uruguay, that have legalised marijuana and where “everything is going very well”. He explained that they have reduced the criminality that was previously linked to the plant and that they have collected a lot of taxes thanks to regulation: “They have rationalised something that I believe everyone in our society (Spain) is now clear about”. He added that this is a matter that “needs to be dealt with rationally”.

It is not the first time that the political leader has made a statement regarding the plant.. He did previously so during a chat where citizens were able to ask him questions. He explained then that, after travelling to Uruguay and talking to Mujica, the legalisation applied in the South American country seemed “very reasonable” to him. He added that cannabis is no more damaging for health than many alcoholic drinks and he acknowledged that “given the situation in the country, it is true that this issue has not been one our priorities, however we have to work on it”.