Going green
The Spanish village of Rasquera has taken a far out approach to solving unemployment – renting out a field to grow marijuana.
Tuesday 24 April 2012, 04:33PM
Rasquera’s village council on February 29 approved the plan to rent seven hectares (43.8 rai) of public land to an association that promotes the legal recreational or therapeutic use of cannabis by its 5,000 members in a 4-3 vote.
Private consumption of cannabis is not outlawed in Spain although it is illegal to sell the drug.
Rasquera, where local produce traditionally includes olives and grapes, is suffering from the country’s severe public financing crisis and hopes income from letting the land will help it pay down its 1.3 million euros (B52 million) of debt.
