Carola Perez and the Medical Cannabis Observatory

Carola Pérez is a lady who transformed a bad accident in a project which contributes, today, to the improvement of the lives of many people.

President of the Observatory Español de Cannabis Medicinal y Asociación dosemociones. Dosemociones, Carola Perez coordinates the first association in supplying advice and information to those consumers, to whom cannabis is dispensed for therapeutic purposes.  

Set up in 2015, the association promoted the creation of the Spanish Observatory of Medical Cannabis (OECM), with the objective to promote, coordinate and implement projects, which help to understand its properties and therapeutic uses.

At the same time the association tries to be of support to public and private institutions, informing them, with the support of scientific and clinical studies.

The accident which changed the life of Carola Lopez

Carola at the age of 11 was victim of a severe fall as a consequence of which she fractured the coccyx.

The accident was traumatic at such a level that at the age of 18 a surgical intervention was necessary to remove the entire coccyx. It wasn’t her only operation, in four years’ time Carola Perez was operated 10 times. 

For Carola the pain was so severe that she wasn’t able to lead a normal life; she thus decides to search for alternative treatments to the cure she was carrying on and her life improves sensibly when she gets to meet the members of the Holy Le Club, one of the oldest associations of cannabis users in Madrid.

With them Carola starts using the plant.

“I met this association thanks to a friend - she tells on the pages of her web portal  - and when I started to acquire knowledge on the topic through books and conversations with people who had used cannabis for a long period, I started to create a protocol with them for all the therapeutic users of the association. It was something I liked and the final result was rewarding. Over the years we brought the patients together, we chatted and shared information”.

"Cannabis is a medicine and as a patient I would like to be able to travel without hiding it, without feeling a criminal, I would like to be able to obtain it in any association, at any pharmacy, dispensary, everywhere, with an optimal quality and at an accessible price, along with the best method of administration”.

Carola Lopez has become spokesperson of patients’ requirements up to Brussels, where she met political representatives, media people and stakeholders, with the objective to raise the public awareness on the topic of cannabis.

Cannabis in Spain

In Spain the cultivation of cannabis for personal use is legal, this can also occur in a collective way through a Cannabis Social Club.

Cannabis Social Clubs are places in which the members can consume cannabis for therapeutic and recreational purposes; these are non-profit associations in which often the associates are also cultivators.
Inside the club it is not possible to purchase or sell cannabis, which belongs to all the members of the club; membership fees depend on the quantity of cannabis necessary for each single component of the club.

“In the cannabis movement we have done a huge job in order to change the social perception on cannabis, and I think that these objectives have been reached. The new generations do not understand nor accept prohibitionism and in the future it cannot be otherwise. The political parties know this and some have changed their own position radically […]” Martin Barriuso comments, historical Spanish anti-prohibitionist leader, one of the creators of the movement of the Cannabis Social Clubs in Spain and founder of the historic Federation of the Cannabis Associations (FAC).