GUARDIA Civil officers in Sant Andreu de la Barca (Barcelona province) have had to clarify a Twitter debate after a regional MP posted a photograph of cannabis plants drying out in their headquarters.
Rubén Wagensberg, from the Catalunya Left Republicans (ERC), tweeted the above picture with the caption: “Hello, Guardia Civil. I'd say that what is hanging up inside your base in Sant Andreu de la Barca is, unfortunately, illegal.”
The Guardia Civil responded: “No, it's not illegal because it is in line with treating a drug haul seized prior to its destruction, and is under constant controlled custody and court-supervised procedures.”
This explanation was not enough for subsequent social media users who saw the thread.
Among others, senator for the Basque reunification party EH Bildu, Jon Iñarritu, commented that the picture looked as though it had been lifted from one of the Torrente films, a spoof cop series, and queried why it had to be dried out for 'destruction'.
Another user said: “What they don't tell you is what they're going to do with it.”
'Burning it under controlled conditions' was the response, which provoked amusement, although the Guardia Civil said these 'conditions' and the location would be 'determined by a judge' and 'supervised by the ministry of health'.
A follow-up question, asked 'seriously and without any irony', exactly why the drugs had to be 'treated' before being destroyed and what this process involved.
The Guardia Civil explained: “It cannot be stored if it's still green, because it produces toxic emissions. The treatment we're talking about here is the drying-out process. Once it's dry, it can then be packaged up for storage until the judge orders its destruction.”
The force continued to patiently answer a flood of Twitter questions about the legality of the drying plants being held in the police station, helping to solve one of the greatest mysteries surrounding modern crime-cracking: what officers do with drugs, especially in plant form and in large quantities, seized during raids.
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