Treatment of cannabis in the Spanish press

This article is the result of an investigation that analyzes the treatment that the Spanish newspapers La Razon, El Mundo, El Pats and ABC gave to cannabis from the 1st of January to the 31st of December of 2015. Applying the methodology of content analysis, this paper quantifies, analyzes and compares the news treatment performed by the above mentioned media. The results show that cannabis is an issue of interest in the newspapers agenda. It receives an eminently informative treatment, with abundant descriptive news, in detriment of opinion and analysis. The main topics of the news that deal with cannabis are police, judicial and criminal aspects.