Senator Matteo Mantero has filed a bill to legalise the cultivation, processing and sale of light drugs, suggesting for individuals to cultivate their own medicinal cannabis.
Mantero, of the Italian political party, 5 Star Movement, has filed a bill to the senate to legalise the cultivation, processing and sale of recreational and medicinal cannabis and its derivatives. However, the Italian Minister for Family and Disability, Lorenzo Fontana, does not agree.
The rise of medicinal cannabis across Europe
It is well known that the legalisation of cannabis for medical use has already been successful within certain countries in Europe, including Germany and the Netherlands. But debate continues over whether the rest of Europe should follow the same path.
In Italy, medicinal cannabis laws prohibit patients from cultivating their own marijuana plants. Instead, all patients must receive their medicinal cannabis from an approved pharmacy.
Interior Minister and deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini does not agree with Matteo’s proposed bill: “The bill to legalise the cultivation, processing and sale of cannabis and its derivatives is not in the government contract and will never pass.”
Mantero’s bill essentially includes the following three basic points:
Firstly, to allow, under certain conditions, the cultivation of cannabis, individually (up to 3 plants) or associated (up to 30 people).
Secondly, to provide for the lawfulness of the possession of cannabis within certain quantities (15 grams at home and 5 grams outside), in addition to correcting the law on inflorescences, which are now available and sold in ‘cannabis light shops’ for technical use, providing for the possibility of be sold for food or herbal use (they will be subject to all the checks due and linked to that type of activity) and raising the percentage of THC which may contain up to 1%.
And finally, to regulate illicit conduct by providing a differentiation of sentence in relation to the type of substances, such as heavy drugs, light drugs etc.
