I spent 24 hours in a Barcelona Airport jail cell for bringing 1.2 grams of marijuana from Spain into the airport.

I'm American and am a frequent (4-5x a year) visitor to Spain where I have a residence as well as a Spanish wife, and also where I work. I was just in the US for two weeks and when I came back to Spain yesterday, I was arrested for having 1.2 grams of marijuana on me (in an edible gummy form) and sentenced to a €1000 fine. <br><br>It was a complete accident and I didn't even know it was on me. I had gone to a party in New York and had taken a small bag of edibles, and whoever checked my bag at the airport at JFK had barely even looked inside it and just closed it and said "all good!" and I took off with it. I didn't even realize it was there either until they put my bag under the x-ray to check it at BCN airport, and obviously it is much harder to overlook a bag than a couple of edibles. I told them I was sorry and didn't realize it was there but they said I was under arrest and I was pulled aside. <br><br>They asked me to empty my bag and I looked through every inch of it to see if anything else was hiding, but it was pretty much just that. They then told me I had to go into the back to answer some questions. I figured this was some kind of "a few questions and then you can be on your way" situation. <br><br>It was not. The police told me I was going to jail. I asked if I could call my wife to let her know what was happening, and they said the only people I could call were a lawyer or the embassy, but they didn't have the contact info for either. I said that if it would get me a jail cell with some Wi-Fi so I could call someone, I would be happy to handle the situation overnight and go back to the airport in the morning. But I was told that they would not let me have Wi-Fi. I then asked if I could call an uber and go handle the situation myself, but they told me I was under arrest and could not leave. They then said they were going to take me to a cell to wait for the next morning. <br><br>I was led to a cell where some young Arab man was holding his head in his hands, and a random girl was sleeping on a bench, and I thought it was a standard jail cell. They locked me in and I told the guy I was sorry I had to intrude and that I would leave him alone. I then pulled out my phone to text my wife and a guard came and watched me put it in my pocket to make sure I didn't have it. <br><br>It was 2:00 am and I was extremely tired so I fell asleep on the concrete. I woke up around 7am and found out the girl had been arrested for smuggling cocaine and the guy had 0.5 grams of hash. I also learned that this was not a shared cell but I had been placed in some kind of solitary confinement cell with no Wi-Fi or phone or bathroom or running water. This worried me because the guy was being held for hash and told me he was already held up for a day and it was driving him insane. <br><br>I complained to the guards that I needed to call my wife because she was worried sick about me and they told me I could call her when my hearing was held about 12 hours later, and that I needed to learn to "man up" because police arrest people every day for larger crimes. But I told them that wasn't the point, the point was I couldn't tell her what was going on. <br><br>They then offered me a phone call to a lawyer and I said okay, because I didn't know how to contact any other lawyer, and they told me they would let me choose one from a book. I said okay, but when I got to the book they told me I could only choose a lawyer that spoke English, Spanish, and Catalan, and that I couldn't choose any lawyer at random like I would in the US. They told me it would be another 12 hours before they got to me anyway, so I said okay and waited. <br><br>Around 10am they came to get the girl for her hearing and she was gone for a while, and then they came for me right after her. They took me to some kind of police station and asked me a lot of questions in Spanish, like where I had gotten the drugs and what I planned to do with it. I told them I didn't plan to do anything with it because it was an accident and I didn't even know it was there. <br><br>After 15 minutes of questions, they gave me a piece of paper with a €1000 fine on it, and I asked the guy if I had to pay it now because I didn't have €1000 in cash. He said it would be mailed to me and gave me a piece of paper to sign. I read it and it said I was admitting to possession of drugs and the fine for it. I hesitated for a second because I didn't want to incriminate myself, but they told me I would only be arrested again if I didn't sign it. I signed it, and they told me I was free to go and it was okay to go back to my flight. <br><br>I had to wait another 15 minutes to get my phone back, but once I got it I called my wife and told her I was okay and I had been held overnight for a small amount of marijuana. I then tried to go back to my flight but they said I couldn't because the flight had already departed. I called my wife and told her I would just get an Uber to our house in Valencia, but she told me my friend was coming to pick me up. I was so happy, and I waited at the airport for a couple of hours but he didn't text me so I called her back. <br><br>It was 2:00pm at this point and she told me he got to the airport at 6:00am, and that it was a miracle I had gotten out because she was worried sick that I had been taken on the plane and that she hadn't heard from me. She said she was starting to lose hope when she heard I was okay, and that she was so glad I had accidentally had the drugs because she was worried something worse had happened to me. <br><br>It was a 4-hour drive to Valencia but my friend was happy to do it, and we chatted the whole way. But I was still so angry and I couldn't believe I had been sentenced to a €1000 fine and nearly a €100 Uber for having 1.2 grams of marijuana. <br><br>I am still a little angry but my wife lifted my spirits, and I'm going to go to the beach tomorrow.