Cannabis light shop, products sellable only if not "drug-inducing"

Cannabis Light. The joint criminal sections of the Court of Cassation reveal the bag of the 2016 law that legalizes cultivation, not marketing. The judge of merit will decide from time to time whether the product is illegal, without numerical parameters

«The marketing of legal cannabis sativa and, in particular, leaves, inflorescences, oil, resin, obtained from the cultivation of the aforementioned variety of hemp, does not fall within the scope of application of Law 242 of 2016, which qualifies as lawful only the cultivation of hemp of the varieties registered in the common catalogue of agricultural plant species, pursuant to art. 17 of Council Directive 2002/53 EC of 13 June 2002, and which exhaustively lists the derivatives from the aforementioned cultivation that can be marketed».

The verdict issued yesterday by the United Criminal Sections of the Court of Cassation, after a hearing held behind closed doors, risks shattering a rapidly expanding commercial development sector, which provides employment especially to many young people.

In essence, the highest body of the Supreme Court - called upon to rule on the seizure of products from two shops in the Marche region (in Ancona and Macerata, whose closure, as we will remember, played into the hands of Matteo Salvini's electoral campaign) and to bring order to the "jurisprudential conflict" created after other sections of the same Court of Cassation (the Third Criminal Section, the Sixth and the Fourth) had issued conflicting sentences - highlights a loophole in the law that has allowed the opening of hundreds of cannabis light shops throughout Italy.

THE JOINT CRIMINAL SECTIONS , chaired by Domenico Carcano, in fact underline that law 242/2016 only legalizes the cultivation of cannabis sativa with a THC below the threshold of 0.6% and not the marketing of products derived from it (which, according to some previous sentences, would instead be superfluous because «it is in the nature of the economic activity that the products of the “hemp agri-food chain”, which the law expressly aims to promote, are marketable»).

However, this being the case, in the view of the highest body of the Court of Cassation, the possession and transfer of cannabis - even that which is legal to grow - falls within the actions that may or may not constitute a crime depending on its "drug-inducing effect". In fact, the judges wrote in yesterday's ruling: "The conduct of transfer, sale and in general the marketing to the public, in any capacity, of products derived from the cultivation of legal cannabis sativa constitute the crime referred to in art. 73, paragraphs 1 and 4 of Presidential Decree 309/1990 (the consolidated text on drugs, ed.), unless such products are devoid of drug-inducing effect".

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN in concrete terms? That from now on the judge of merit will decide from time to time whether the marketed product, possibly accused, has a "drug effect" thus exceeding the permitted threshold (no longer established by a numerical parameter). The consequences on light cannabis shops should not be direct but it is clear that the marketing of this type of product becomes considerably more risky for the operator. In the same verdict as yesterday, in fact, the Court of Cassation accepted the appeal of the prosecutor of Ancona against the decision of the Review Court to annul the seizure of goods from the two shops, and sent the case to a new trial.

This is what the Attorney General had asked in the alternative, but was hoping for the documents to be sent to the Constitutional Court. However, the defense, represented by lawyer Carlo Alberto Zaina, opposed this action, seeing the referral to the Constitutional Court as a continuation of "a situation of absurd uncertainty". According to Attorney General Maria Giuseppina Fodaroni, however, the current legislative system - in the combined provisions of Law 242/2016 and Presidential Decree 309/1990 with the tables amended after the Constitutional Court cancelled the Fini-Giovanardi law in 2014 - is not clear on light cannabis, and can create confusion regarding the conduct susceptible to sanctions.

OF COURSE , the ruling by the ermines was greeted with enthusiasm by the prohibitionist right, starting with the Minister for the Family Lorenzo Fontana who expressed "satisfaction". And even the Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini rejoiced, stating: "We are against any type of drug, without ifs or buts, and in favor of healthy entertainment". Coldiretti instead pointed out that in the last five years the land cultivated with cannabis sativa in Italy has increased 10-fold: from 400 hectares in 2013 to almost 4000 in 2018. And so now "the intervention of Parliament" is made "necessary".