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Cannabmed: A Decade of Education and Advocacy on Medical Cannabis

For more than a decade, Cannabmed operated as one of the most influential — and least conventional — platforms in the debate on medical cannabis in Spain. Promoted by ICEERS, the project organized conferences, community processes, health training, scientific production, and political advocacy in a context marked by a lack of regulation, institutional stigma, and fragmentation of public discourse.

More than a thematic program, Cannabmed functioned as a translation infrastructure: between patients and professionals, between life experience and scientific evidence, between civil society and institutions. Its emergence responded to a structural gap in the drug and health policy ecosystem.

“Within the state landscape, Cannabmed has fulfilled a clear function: to fill a void that existed,” summarizes Òscar Parés, former deputy director of ICEERS and one of the central figures in the design of the project. “At the state level, there were very few platforms or spaces representing people who use cannabis for medicinal reasons and their families,” he adds.

This gap was not only representative. It had material consequences: legal uncertainty, lack of medical support, exposure to unregulated markets, and a public narrative dominated by prejudice.

Background: institutional work and empirical basis

Cannabmed’s consolidation was based on ICEERS’ previous work in the analysis of cannabis, health, and public policy. Since the early 2010s, the foundation had already been actively involved in studying the model of cannabis social clubs and in institutional spaces related to drug policy.

In 2014, the deputy director of ICEERS appeared as an expert before the Joint Committee of the Congress of Deputies for the Study of the Drug Problem, addressing the legal and social reality of cannabis social clubs in Spain. In 2015, ICEERS published the report “Making a virtue of necessity. Drug policies in Catalonia, from local action to global change,” a work that documented the genesis and development of the social club model from a public health and rights perspective.

This background allowed Cannabmed to take shape on a solid empirical, legal, and conceptual basis, connecting the debate on medical cannabis with existing access practices.

2016: when patients entered the public conversation

The first public milestone identified under the name Cannabmed took place in December 2016, with the celebration of the First Cannabmed Congress at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, organized in conjunction with the Alchimia Solidaria Foundation and the CANNA Foundation. The meeting introduced an unusual shift in the public debate: placing patients and family members who already used cannabis for therapeutic purposes at the center, not as isolated clinical cases, but as active participants in the health and political debate.

Their testimonies painted a picture of a widespread but little-recognized reality: the daily use of cannabis to relieve symptoms, the absence of clinical protocols, fear of administrative or criminal penalties, and an ambiguous relationship with the healthcare system. Cannabmed began to function as a space where this experience was no longer confined to the margins. The commitment was based on a clear premise. “We have always defended the existing reality, which is unique and sui generis,” said Parés, “a reality linked to the social cannabis club model as an alternative to the unregulated market, but also to human rights: the right to health, free choice, and self-determination of individuals.”

That same year, ICEERS strengthened its institutional dialogue by appearing before the Parliament of Catalonia during the debate on the proposed law on cannabis user associations, providing technical analysis and empirical evidence on the functioning of social clubs and their implications in terms of public health and rights.

From individual experience to collective organization

After the 2016 conference, ICEERS accompanied a sustained process of meetings, working groups, and regular conferences between patients, family members, and caregivers. From this journey emerged, in 2017, the Union of Patients for the Regulation of Cannabis (UPRC), formally constituted as an association and publicly presented at an event linked to Cannabmed that same year.

The UPRC made it possible to transform individual trajectories into a collective voice with the capacity for public dialogue. Its demands—safe access, legal certainty, and regulation with a health focus—began to articulate a coherent discourse in a space that had previously been fragmented. This process responded to a situation of structural vulnerability. “Always on the side of the most vulnerable people,” Parés emphasized, “who are the most affected by this prohibitionist system: persecution, fines, access to products without quality or traceability, unknown compositions, constant variability, and opportunism.”

At the same time, in 2017, the Barcelona Declaration on Medical Cannabis was published, a document that organized scientific, legal, and health arguments and explicitly linked them to principles of public health and human rights. The text became a reference point for the media, professionals, and institutions.

2018: health training and entry into the medical field

The Second Cannabmed Congress, held in May 2018 at the Official College of Physicians of Barcelona (COMB), marked a turning point in the public visibility of the project and its relationship with the institutional health sector. For the first time, the debate was deliberately placed within a medical corporation, directly addressing the healthcare profession about a practice that was already occurring — outside of protocols, formal training, and official recognition — in the daily lives of thousands of patients.

The sessions addressed therapeutic applications, the state of available evidence, and the limits of knowledge, combining clinical presentations, critical reviews of studies, and discussions of real cases. The message that ran through the program was difficult to ignore: the absence of training does not eliminate the use of cannabis for therapeutic purposes, but it does shift that use to less safe contexts.

In practice, the lack of clinical tools left patients and professionals without shared references, encouraging self-medication, the circulation of fragmented information, and the reproduction of inequalities in access. Cannabmed thus positioned healthcare training as a public health issue in the face of an already established reality.

The choice of venue was a deliberate strategy. “It was no coincidence that the three Cannabmed events were held at the university, the medical association, and the pharmacists’ association,” explained Parés. “It was a way of hacking the system, of working from within civil society to ensure that information not taught at universities was included, or at least taken into account, in the official discourse.”

From training to professional organization (2018–2019)

Starting with the second and third editions of Cannabmed, the project began to systematically bring together a growing number of health professionals interested in the clinical approach to cannabis. Conferences, seminars, and training spaces made it possible to consolidate a database of professionals with diverse backgrounds but with a common interest in incorporating this field into their practice based on criteria of rigor and professional ethics.

On that basis, ICEERS subsequently promoted an incubation and technical support process aimed at facilitating the self-organization of that group. The objective was not to create a structure directed by the foundation, but rather to generate the conditions for the professionals themselves to be able to give themselves a collective voice and represent themselves in the scientific, clinical, and regulatory spheres.

This process gave rise to the Clinical Society of Endocannabinology (SCE), a professional association created by the participating professionals themselves. For the first time, a healthcare group in Spain was organized around medical cannabis through a process incubated by civil society, with technical support from ICEERS and full organizational autonomy.

Pharmacy, access, and broadening the debate

The III Cannabmed Congress, held in 2020 under the slogan “Towards a cannabis pharmacopoeia,” explicitly incorporated the pharmaceutical perspective into the debate, in collaboration with the Barcelona College of Pharmacists (COFB). The move to an online format with free access significantly expanded the scope of the meeting, facilitating the participation of professionals, patients, and interested parties from different territories.

The sessions addressed key issues for the integration of cannabis into formal health frameworks: standardization of preparations, quality control, formulations, routes of administration, and access models compatible with public health principles. Within this framework, the debate gradually shifted from the question of whether to the question of how, highlighting the need for regulatory frameworks capable of prioritizing health criteria—safety, traceability, professional support—over purely commercial dynamics. Cannabmed thus reinforced an idea that ran throughout the project cycle: without quality guarantees or adequate access mechanisms, the absence of regulation does not disappear, it only shifts to scenarios of greater risk and inequality.

Training, research, and advocacy

Beyond conferences, Cannabmed gave rise to a specific training program: Campus Cannabmed, an online education platform aimed at combating misinformation through content based on scientific evidence. Its courses covered everything from the fundamentals of the endocannabinoid system to areas that have been little explored in the Spanish context, such as the veterinary use of medical cannabis.

At the same time, ICEERS continued to conduct research on cannabis, health, and society, producing a steady stream of scientific output between 2017 and 2022—academic articles, comparative studies, and social analyses of cannabis social clubs—which fueled public debate and institutional dialogue.

This body of evidence contributed to ICEERS’ participation in parliamentary debates and public consultation processes on cannabis regulation. At a later stage, in March 2022, ICEERS’ scientific director, Dr. José Carlos Bouso, appeared as an expert before the Subcommittee of the Health and Consumer Affairs Committee of the Congress of Deputies, as part of an analysis of experiences with the regulation of cannabis for medicinal use.

The work linked to Cannabmed also spread knowledge internationally through conferences, comparative studies, and institutional visits to countries such as Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and Malta, as well as through initiatives such as the Cannabis Social Club Study Tour, which allowed the community access model developed in Catalonia to be shared with policymakers and regulators from different countries.

Within this framework, during the 12th Legislature, ICEERS provided direct technical advice to the confederal parliamentary group Unidas Podemos–En Comú Podem–Galicia en Común on cannabis regulation. For the first time, a national political force commissioned ICEERS to draft a comprehensive legislative proposal to regulate cannabis in Spain.

The work, led by Constanza Sánchez, included comparative analysis, regulatory design, and the articulation of criteria related to public health, rights, and risk reduction. Although the proposal was not ultimately processed and was eventually shelved, the experience marked a high point in ICEERS’ political influence, placing its technical expertise at the heart of the national legislative process.

Team

The development of Cannabmed involved various people within ICEERS. Among them were Òscar Parés, who played a key role in strategic design and political advocacy, and Cristina Sánchez, project coordinator and a central figure in training, outreach, and community coordination.

An operational legacy

Cannabmed does not continue today as a formal program under that name. However, its effects remain visible. It helped legitimize the voice of patients, opened up training opportunities in healthcare institutions, articulated reference documents, and brought scientific evidence into the political debate.

More than a closed project, it left behind a constellation of tools, alliances, and lessons learned that continue to shape ICEERS’ work on cannabis, health, and drug policy. Or, as Òscar Parés put it, “creating the conditions for others to meet, debate, and organize.”

Sources and resources

Cannabmed Conferences

Community processes and reference documents

Training

Professional organization

Selection of ICEERS publications related to cannabis, health, and access models.

Publications available on ResearchGate, PubMed, ScienceDirect, and SciELO through ICEERS institutional profiles.

Institutional impact

International outreach

Editorial note

This article reconstructs Cannabmed’s journey based on public documentation, scientific publications, and direct testimonies from people involved in its design and development. Its objective is not to close a chapter, but rather to document a collective process that continues to shape ICEERS’ work on cannabis, health, and drug policy.