Italy on the Path of Legalising Marijuana

Italy has taken the first steps in the process of legalising marijuana. On Wednesday 24^th June 2015, more than two hundred members of parliament voted to make it legal to possess not more than 15 grams of marijuana.  The bill also sought to make legal for people to grow not more than five marijuana plants at their homes.  The interim text proposed that it should be legal for people to produce, consume and grow marijuana as well as sell it at particular shops that are already approved by the government.  Benedetto Vedova, Junior Minister in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, sponsored the bill, which received cross-party support.  The proposal was passed in a sitting of 217 members from both chambers. The next step will be to take the bill to the Italian Parliament, which has 945 members for consideration.  If the bill is passed, it implies that marijuana will become a government controlled substance.  The Italian government will take charge in controlling its sale.

The passing of the proposal has drawn a lot of criticism from organisations, which are against drug legalisation in Italy.  Many people have viewed the decision as a bold step considering that Italy is perceived as a hub for drug lords and crime bosses.  Adding to this, drug crimes in Italy have been at an all-time high because of the ease of accessing the drugs.  Currently, possessing marijuana in Italy is not considered a criminal offense. It is treated as a minor offense despite the fact that using marijuana for medical purposes is illegal.  The punishment handed down to people arrested for  marijuana possession includes having one's driver’s license provisionally suspended. However, cultivating marijuana is deemed as a major crime, and one can do time in jail for such an offense.

Italy is not the first country in Europe to legalise marijuana.  Other countries such as the Czech Republic have already legalised marijuana for medical purposes. The same goes for The Netherlands, France, and Spain.  Senator Vedova described the first steps in legalising marijuana as a promotion for the Italian reform on drugs use for personal purposes.  He draws upon examples from the Czech Republic and France, saying that legalising marijuana would make it easier for patients to acquire it easily.

Senator Vedova is a member of The Radicals, a small but influential political party that has been lobbying for the legalisation of marijuana and other drugs since the 1970s.  In 1995, he and others were jailed for publicly distributing hashish. Legalisation of marijuana started to take shape last year when a court overturned a directive that had been issued by Berlusconi when he was the Prime Minister classifying marijuana with other drugs such as cocaine and heroin. The reason given for overturning that directive was that the prison population was increasing at an alarming rate. This decision reduced the criminal charges of possessing marijuana to a lesser charge of misdemeanor with most offenders having their passports or driving licenses suspended or just being fined.

July 2015