The legal definition of drug trafficking generally refers to the cultivation, manufacture, sale and distribution of illicit narcotic substances. With the augmenting rate of drug addiction, drug trafficking has become a greater complication for numerous nations including Spain.
Spain is considered to be a key gateway to drugs entering the European Union, and this figure is in line with other European drug trade markets.
About half of the drugs entering Europe come from Spain. According to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), Spain is the main entry point of cocaine and cannabis into Europe. Spain has also seen increasing numbers of criminal drug trafficking networks operating within its borders; Italian mafia
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The percentage of less than 18s who have used cannabis at least once has increased from 21 percent in 1994 to 33 percent in 2010. However, after a peak of 42.7 percent in 2004 cannabis use has been falling every year since.
Drug consumption is not a crime in Spain. After the devastation caused by heroin use and HIV during the 1980s, Spanish authorities decided to focus on “curing” drug addicts – considered sick people – while punishing drug traffickers. This model still applies today. Although drug consumption is not prohibited, The Law on the Protection of Citizens’ Security (2015) establishes drug consumption and personal possession in public places as serious order offences punishable by administrative sanctions, primarily fines of EUR 601–30 000.
In Spain, drug prevention is organized and financed through the “National plan on Drugs” and at the level of autonomous communities through Regional Drug Plans and Municipal Drug Plans. It also receives funding from community-based programs.
The main features of prevention policy are a focus on both licit and illicit substances, strong cooperation with the educational system, and important interventions in selective and indicated