Spain court rules against town's plans to grow pot as a means of combating financial crisis

MADRID – Spain's judiciary has rejected a plan by a small town in northeastern Catalonia to ease its municipal debt and help lift itself out of the financial crisis by growing marijuana.

When the seven-member town council of Rasquera — population 960 — voted in favor of cultivating cannabis just over a year ago in order to create jobs and shore up its finances, the news flashed around the world.

In April 2012, 56 percent of Rasquera's inhabitants gave support in a referendum to the plan to rent land to the pot-smoking group ABCDA which agreed to pay $750,000 per year for two years.

Now such plans have been dashed by a court ruling Friday accepting a central government appeal against the council's decision.

Rasquera's council says it will appeal the ruling.