Advice on fresh start in Spain

[Endrega]

Hello
I am sick of living in place where I am prosecuted for cannabis. I want to leave everything and go to the most liberal place that I can. I am EU citizen so I can move to Spain. Anyone has any advice? How much money to save, where to go? Any tipps if you don't speak spanish?

 

[Creeperpark]

Hello
I am sick of living in place where I am prosecuted for cannabis. I want to leave everything and go to the most liberal place that I can. I am EU citizen so I can move to Spain. Anyone has any advice? How much money to save, where to go? Any tipps if you don't speak spanish?

Sorry, you are sick friend. Most of the problems you have now you create in your mind. There are a lot of places that are much worse than where you are now. Count your blessings.

 

[Genghis Kush.]

Hello
I am sick of living in place where I am prosecuted for cannabis. I want to leave everything and go to the most liberal place that I can. I am EU citizen so I can move to Spain. Anyone has any advice? How much money to save, where to go? Any tipps if you don't speak spanish?

I have no advice other than I think moving to a new location for a fresh start can be the best thing you will ever do.
i have no idea where you live , but some places just drag us down and are not worth it.

”Follow your bliss. If you do follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while waiting for you, and the life you ought to be living is the one you are living”. Joseph Campbell

 

[Guy Brush]

I am thinking constantly about the same. Leaving Germany - even after the so-called legalization. Which is at best some kind of decriminalisation. For some situations it got even worse. Thinking of seeds. Before the 'event' the possession of seeds was penalised if they were "intended to use in an illegal grow", which was of course a rubber-paragraph as we say in German, haha.
You could, however, be in the possession of seeds for various other intentions, like fishing, collecting genetics or anything bullshit else. This didn't change but it has now the additional rule: "Only bought from sellers in the EU". No other parts of the world. You can now be prosecuted just for buying seeds from the United States, Canada and from anywhere else outside of the EU with fines up to 30.000 € at this moment in the state of Bavaria.
I feel so degraded and betrayed by legalization.
Clone and seed sales as a German producer/vendor are forbidden, while EU vendors from outside of Germany can perfectly sell clones and seeds to German customers.
EU clone vendors and seed sellers are making the business of their lifetime. Nothing against them. But we are left out of our own game.
Even if you can now have 3 plants legally, how can you keep 3 mothers, if you want to flower them for smoking? You need to clone them and become illegal because the 3 plant count goes for flowering AND non flowering plants.
You harvest more than 50 g and you're illegal.
You give ANY person, even your dad, mom or life partner, ANY amount of weed and you're illegal.
You grow 2 x 3 plants in one tent with your life partner and you're illegal.
WTF is going on?
You still have to fear that they can come and for a small misdemeanor take all of your life's work with them and destroy everything in a day.
These politicians are stupid. They all need to be removed and punished for their stupidity.
They're dumb and they don't know what they're doing. Or if they know what they are doing then they are making cynical laws and both needs to be punished and ended.

 

[Guy Brush]

Oh boy, and because the socialist-green-liberal coalition is now crashing and early elections are probably taking place, the Christian Party which seem to be the winner of the political crisis, have nothing better to do as to announce that the first thing they'll do when they win the elections is making weed completely illegal again or at least make it substantially harder than it is already now.

 

[El Timbo]

Any tipps if you don't speak spanish?

Start learning Spanish.

 

[limegreenlimey]

If you are a grower, you still have to be extremely discrete in Spain. It's probably less of an issue if you are a local and growing in your own house but loads of foreigners get nicked every year. I suspect there is monitoring of electricity use, not least because you buy electric in advance, by consumption, so if you have a one bed flat and are paying for a house worth of electricity, it's going to raise suspicions before you have turned on a lamp. People will grass you up for strong smells, including indiscrete smoking. You'll need a big patch of land far from prying eyes for an outdoor grow of any size. There's loads of criminals and gitanos ripping off growers. Because property law is heavily in favour of tenants, people are justifiably cautious about renting out houses to people unless they are confident that they are of good character. And just because you have a right to live there as an EU Citizen, they don't make it easy to do so: there is loads of paperwork to get residency and you must be able to prove a source of income

The upsides of course are not insignificant. Spain is a great place to live and living costs are low, apart from electricity. The buyers clubs are a civilised approach to cannabis retail, though I'd think twice about joining one if I was actually growing! Spain has the best quality pot on sale in Europe, weed or hash. Most Spanish people are lovely, especially if you speak some Spanish.

My advice would be:
Learn Spanish, or maybe Catalan if you want to live in catalunya or the Balearics.
Get a job (you filthy hippy hahahaha)
Aim for somewhere with lots of foreigners
Decide if you want to be a "smoker" (and join a buyers club) or a "grower" (and never join a buyers club)
Don't grow until you have established yourself, a cover story, and that you can be confident about security
Be absolutely diligent about paperwork, getting your NIE etc
It's not quite the Italian "Bella figura" situation but you still need to make an effort to be presentable and outwardly respectable. There are a lot of very conservative people in Spain. You can use that to your advantage but if you look like a hippy, be bloody careful about misbehaving.
Go solar for electricity, if you possibly can.
Spend some time (off season) scoping out some different places to live. Much of Spain like everywhere else is fucking boring and full of pig ignorant people, Spanish or otherwise. The south is baking in summer, the north is freezing in winter. Weather is still better than Dusseldorf but few places are nice all year round (and they are expensive, like Málaga/Marbella and Ibiza).

I think there are three plans for Spain that work best for most people but neither are 100% easy. And unless you are old, neither is viable unless you have a job and/or money.

If you have a partner, then living out of town is viable. I'd still live somewhere dominated by tourists, i.e. one of the Costas, and in a quiet villa away from other people in the countryside. If you are going to rent, you 100% need a job first else no one will rent their place to you unless they know you (maybe you know someone in Germany who will rent you their holiday villa?). Solar electric and an indoor grow at least until you are very well settled and are totally confident about outdoor security from police and thieves but yes you can think about growing outdoors eventually. Why a partner? You'll go mad with boredom if you are living in the countryside unless you have company. And people will ask questions if you are on your own; the Spanish are family people and suspicious of lone, foreign men. This way you can enjoy a quiet, sunny, country life getting stoned by the pool with your loved one. If you have the cash to buy a villa/finca, this is the dream option.

Or

Take a villa in one of the endless coastal towns. Somewhere like Torrevieja. It's a shit hole by the way, but the weather is nice, the supermarket shelves are full, you will be camouflaged among all the anonymous holiday makers. You can likely earn a living easily, at least in season. People will leave you alone. Again,.grow indoors. Probably smoke indoors too. Enjoy a quiet life of anonymity. Anywhere with a big urban sprawl of villas is good. Just don't expect culture or excitement. You can buy a semi detached villa for very little in somewhere like this. If you don't piss off your neighbors, this is an easy and relatively safe option if you have a bit of money to set up (pay a year's rent in advance).

Or

Live in a city. Don't grow unless you can afford to buy somewhere, preferably a whole house because your landlord neighbors in a block of flats will be spying on you like crazy until you have been there for years. Join some buyers clubs. Get a job. Live like you would in a city In Germany: work, rest, play... Except that the weather and food and dope is better in Spain. There are loads of nice cities in Spain. I favor Alicante, Palma de Mallorca, Valencia and Malaga but many others are worth looking at. You don't have to be on the coast. This is the low stress option if you are on your own. You stand a vague chance of getting work and making friends and don't need to worry about bringing someone home if you are not growing.

 

[Endrega]

Same as where I live now. I have to look and present myself respectable.

I am no hippie. I have a partner4life and I run a business. I am a hadyman so I can do my thing pretty much everywhere and language is not the main concern most od the time. I changed countries twice in my life, so I get the general idea of having to adapt to everything beeing different and new. I know from experiance that the upsides are usually more worth then the downside because you secifically go for the upside.

Take my family, get a job, get a villa, live life and maybe someday open a Club or something.

I am thinking constantly about the same. Leaving Germany - even after the so-called legalization.

Same boat bro. It's time we f*ck off to spain.
every-f*cking-body is getting rich of the german market this year. How easy would it be to make a clone nursery. I had everything ready.

I rather repair toilets in Spain ot something if it means I get to live a normal life.
I don't mind suspicious people, it means they are not ignorant. I can totally work with that. My stories have layers if needed

@limegreenlimey - thanks for all advice. Very valueble. I'll take that into my planning. Thanks for the different options and stuff!

 

[limegreenlimey]

I

Same as where I live now. I have to look and present myself respectable.

I am no hippie. I have a partner4life and I run a business. I am a hadyman so I can do my thing pretty much everywhere and language is not the main concern most od the time. I changed countries twice in my life, so I get the general idea of having to adapt to everything beeing different and new. I know from experiance that the upsides are usually more worth then the downside because you secifically go for the upside.

Take my family, get a job, get a villa, live life and maybe someday open a Club or something.


Same boat bro. It's time we f*ck off to spain.
every-f*cking-body is getting rich of the german market this year. How easy would it be to make a clone nursery. I had everything ready.

I rather repair toilets in Spain ot something if it means I get to live a normal life.
I don't mind suspicious people, it means they are not ignorant. I can totally work with that. My stories have layers if needed

@limegreenlimey - thanks for all advice. Very valueble. I'll take that into my planning. Thanks for the different options and stuff!

If you have practical skills and are a family man, then Spain is a good option for you. Just do it "properly", by the book, and you can build a great life there. It is a good place. My equivocation was only that a lot of people who haven't found their way think it will be good for them, and it is no better a place for the directionless than anywhere else. Check it out! Explore and find a good place