Italy’s authorities has invoked emergency powers to push by means of a controversial ban on hemp flowers, bypassing parliamentary debate and successfully criminalizing an trade stated to be price almost €2 billion.
The measure, enacted as a “decree regulation” final week, reclassifies industrial hemp flower as a narcotic, no matter its THC content material. It renders unlawful the cultivation, sale, processing, and possession of hemp flowers and cannabinoids resembling CBD throughout the nation.
Based on trade teams, the decree threatens 22,000 to 30,000 jobs and will bankrupt over 3,000 companies. Authorized specialists and European policymakers say the transfer seemingly violates each the Italian Structure and European Union regulation.
Bypassing Parliament
The hemp ban originated as Article 18 of Italy’s broader Safety Invoice, which incorporates varied public security provisions. A joint committee within the Chamber of Deputies accepted the modification final summer season, equating low-THC industrial hemp with high-THC marijuana.
Although the measure had stalled for months amid inner pushback, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s authorities expedited it final week by invoking Article 77 of the Italian Structure, which permits for decree legal guidelines in circumstances of necessity and urgency. The decree didn’t return to Parliament for a 3rd studying and have become enforceable instantly.
Lawmakers now have 60 days to transform the decree into everlasting regulation. Till then, enforcement is taken into account momentary, although its influence is already being felt. The ultimate resolution rests with President Sergio Mattarella, who could both signal it into regulation or intervene.
Financial harm
“The explanations for the intervention increase robust doubts of constitutionality, in addition to of compatibility with European Union laws,” in line with a assertion from attorneys Giacomo Bulleri and Carlo Alberto Zaina, who symbolize Federcanapa, a nationwide hemp affiliation. “This decree immediately criminalizes a complete agro-industrial sector with no logic, no science, and no transitional interval.”
They argue the regulation is unconstitutional below Article 25(2) as a consequence of its vagueness and the shortage of authorized certainty round which actions are criminalized. In addition they declare it violates the European Conference on Human Rights and worldwide commerce guidelines by disregarding THC ranges and banning non-psychoactive cannabinoids like CBD, CBG, and CBN.
“With this rule, the federal government is just not solely regulating a sector: it’s destroying an financial actuality, annihilating investments which have constructed a future,” commerce group Canapa Sativa Italia stated in a assertion.
Imprenditori Canapa Italia, one other nationwide affiliation, stated in a launch: “We’re confronted with an act of unprecedented gravity, which marks a black web page for the rule of regulation, freedom of enterprise and constitutional ensures.
“With a stroke of the pen, the federal government has determined to remodel 1000’s of sincere entrepreneurs into criminals, responsible solely of getting exercised a authorized career, paid taxes usually and created jobs,” the affiliation stated, warning that the ban undermines honest competitors and invitations lawsuits and EU infringement proceedings.
Violation of EU rules
The European Union has upheld the legality of hemp flower and CBD merchandise beneath 0.3% THC, and stated they might be traded amongst EU international locations below free-movement-of-goods rules. In 2020, the European Court docket of Justice dominated that CBD is just not a narcotic, affirming that member states can’t ban its commerce with out scientific proof of well being dangers.
Italy nonetheless enacted a decree in August 2024 classifying oral CBD as a narcotic, limiting gross sales to pharmacies with non-repeatable prescriptions. That decree was briefly suspended by the Lazio Regional Administrative Court docket.
On March 17, 2025, members of the European Parliament’s Petitions Committee debated Italy’s restrictive measures. Italian hemp teams had petitioned the European Fee in 2024, urging it to intervene.
Mattia Cusani of Canapa Sativa Italia informed lawmakers, “The brave hemp merchants, who abide by the foundations on daily basis and guarantee a clear and protected market, mustn’t concern the state however obtain its help.”
The committee issued a proper letter of grievance to Rome, beginning a 90-day response interval. Nevertheless, the Fee itself has but to take concrete motion, with officers saying evaluations are ongoing.
Years of authorized battle
The battle over hemp in Italy dates again a number of years. In 2016, Italy legalized cultivation of hemp below 0.2% THC, with tolerance as much as 0.6%, spurring a increase within the “hashish mild” sector.
Nevertheless, repeated authorities makes an attempt to tighten restrictions have adopted. In 2022, Italy’s State-Areas Convention reclassified hemp as a medicinal plant, sparking authorized challenges that in the end overturned the transfer.
Final 12 months, the federal government issued complicated circulars about CBD’s legality, threatening even beauty functions regardless of CBD being listed within the EU’s Cosing database since 2021.
