Cultivation of plants from which narcotic substances can be obtained: the ruling of the United Sections has been filed (12348/2020)
Criminal Cassation Court, United Sections, 16 April 2020 (hearing 19 December 2019), no. 12348
President Carcano, Rapporteur Andronio
The following question of law was referred to the United Sections: " whether, for the purposes of configuring the crime of cultivation of plants from which narcotic substances can be extracted , it is sufficient that the plant , conforming to the expected botanical type, is suitable , due to its degree of ripeness, to produce a substance for consumption, without considering the quality of active principle that can be obtained immediately, or whether it is also necessary to verify that the activity is concretely suitable to harm public health and to favour the circulation of drugs by fuelling the market ".
With a ruling filed on 16 April 2020, the United Sections affirmed the following principle of law: " the crime of cultivation of narcotics can be configured regardless of the quantity of active ingredient that can be obtained immediately, the conformity of the plant to the expected botanical type and its aptitude, also due to the cultivation methods, to reach maturity and produce narcotic substance being sufficient; however , cultivation activities of minimal size carried out at home must be considered excluded, as they cannot be traced back to the scope of application of the criminal law, which due to the rudimentary techniques used, the small number of plants, the very modest quantity of product that can be obtained, the lack of further indicators of their inclusion in the narcotics market, appear to be intended exclusively for the personal use of the grower".
