Italy’s regional councilors for agricultural insurance policies have taken a unified stand in opposition to the nationwide authorities’s latest ban on industrial hemp flowers, calling the measure an “ideological” overreach that threatens an rising sector and undermines regional autonomy in agricultural improvement.
The councilors, who oversee agriculture coverage implementation in every of Italy’s areas, are aligned underneath the influential Italian Confederation of Agriculture (Cia), a key stakeholder within the nation’s meals and farming insurance policies. Their coordinated response marks essentially the most forceful political problem but to the ban launched by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s authorities as a part of a sweeping “Safety Decree” issued in April.
“With a regulation that may undoubtedly be outlined as ideological, a whole provide chain in full improvement and an financial and employment-related sector are being erased,” stated Massimo Pica, a spokesperson for Cia. He warned that the ban not solely impacts farmers, but additionally downstream industries resembling development, bioplastics, and textiles that depend upon hemp as a uncooked materials.
Ideological or precautionary?
The federal government decree – Article 18 of the broader Safety Invoice – classifies hemp flowers and cannabinoids resembling CBD, CBG, and CBN as narcotics, no matter their THC content material. The transfer criminalizes the cultivation, sale, processing, and possession of hemp flower, in defiance of current EU laws that let the free circulation of business hemp with THC ranges beneath 0.3%.
Critics say the decree fails to differentiate industrial hemp from marijuana, conflating non-psychoactive crops with managed substances and undermining a sector that has contributed to job creation and rural financial revitalization since hemp was re-legalized in 2016.
“The federal government’s motion disregards scientific proof and fails to acknowledge the confirmed security and financial potential of business hemp,” Pica stated.
Trade leaders warn that with out authorized differentiation between hemp and hashish, Italy dangers falling behind its European neighbors in creating bio-based supplies, sustainable agriculture, and climate-friendly provide chains.
Authorized setbacks for CBD
The backlash from Cia and regional officers follows a latest courtroom resolution additional narrowing the area for Italy’s hemp financial system. On April 21, the Lazio Regional Administrative Court docket (TAR) rejected an enchantment difficult a ban on oral CBD merchandise, thereby reinforcing the federal government’s classification of all cannabis-derived oral dietary supplements, whether or not from flowers, stalks, or leaves, as pharmaceutical medicine.
Citing the “precautionary precept,” the courtroom stated the state was justified in limiting CBD to prescription-only use on account of well being issues resembling liver toxicity and psychiatric dangers. The ruling overturned earlier suspensions of the ban, regardless of counter-evidence from La Sapienza College and the European Fee’s Cosing database, which classifies CBD as non-psychoactive and non-addictive.
The choice surprised authorized specialists and advocates, who had hoped the courtroom would favor market openness and scientific transparency.
The Safety Decree and CBD ban had been each enacted with out full parliamentary debate, prompting constitutional questions and issues over abuse of government energy. Underneath Article 77 of Italy’s Structure, the federal government can situation a decree legislation in instances of “urgency and necessity,” however it have to be ratified by Parliament inside 60 days.
Authorized specialists representing hemp commerce affiliation Federcanapa referred to as the decree “constitutionally and legally uncertain,” arguing it violates each home legislation and European Union guidelines on free commerce and agricultural coverage.
Trade pushes again
Commerce teams estimate the mixed regulatory strikes might jeopardize greater than 3,000 companies and 30,000 jobs in a sector valued at almost €2 billion. In response, a coalition of advocacy teams—together with Canapa Sativa Italia, Resilienza Italia Onlus, and Imprenditori Canapa Italia—has launched a authorized and public marketing campaign to problem the bans at nationwide and EU ranges.
“The brave hemp merchants, who abide by the principles day-after-day and guarantee a clear and protected market, shouldn’t worry the state however obtain its help,” stated Mattia Cusani of Canapa Sativa Italia throughout testimony earlier than the European Parliament’s Petitions Committee in March.
Thus far, the European Fee has requested clarification from the Italian authorities, triggering a 90-day evaluate interval. Trade advocates hope the EU will finally intervene to forestall Italy from setting a precedent that might prohibit authorized hemp markets throughout the bloc.
