A coalition of Italian hashish organizations has unveiled a wide-ranging technique to withstand the federal government’s ban on hemp flowers, calling it unconstitutional, economically harmful, and opposite to EU legislation.
The coordinated response comes after Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s administration bypassed Parliament final week to enact a “Safety Decree” that immediately reclassified industrial hemp flowers — no matter THC content material — as narcotics, successfully outlawing their cultivation, sale, and possession and basically banning non-psychoactive cannabinoids like CBD, CBG, and CBN..
Business advocates say the abrupt transfer threatens as much as 30,000 jobs and imperils greater than 3,000 companies in a market value almost €2 billion.
In a joint assertion, main hemp associations together with Canapa Sativa Italia Affiliation, Sardinia Hashish Affiliation, Resilienza Italia Onlus Affiliation, and Canapa Italia Entrepreneurs Affiliation, stated “the Safety Decree represents a critical and fast risk to all of us; nevertheless, we’re transferring collectively on each authorized and institutional entrance to problem its validity, constitutional legitimacy and consistency with EU legislation.”
Full-court press
The teams introduced a multi-pronged marketing campaign difficult the legality of the decree. Their actions embrace:
- Authorized appeals: Speedy challenges shall be filed with Italy’s Regional Administrative Courts (TAR), alongside motions elevating constitutional questions and invoking EU legislation. Regional governments are being urged to file complaints with the Constitutional Court docket, citing violations of shared jurisdiction in agriculture and commerce.
- EU engagement: The teams are mobilizing overseas firms — together with non-EU operators — to file formal complaints with the European Fee, aiming to set off pressing scrutiny below free-movement-of-goods ideas.
- Civil lawsuits and compensation claims: The coalition is getting ready class-action fits below Italy’s civil code, looking for emergency injunctions and compensation for financial losses and disruption of authorized enterprise exercise.
- Legal protection and insurance coverage: Within the occasion of prosecutions, the associations pledge full authorized assist and can problem expenses as unconstitutional. Additionally they advise stakeholders to acquire authorized insurance coverage to cowl potential litigation prices.
- Grassroots mobilization: Operators are inspired to hitch the associations, report enforcement actions, assist a authorized fund via donations, and assist create a united authorized entrance. Organizers emphasize that early courtroom victories might set precedent with sector-wide influence.
A controversial decree
The decree stems from Article 18 of Italy’s broader Safety Invoice, initially accredited by a legislative committee in mid-2023. It equates low-THC industrial hemp with high-THC marijuana, even though EU guidelines allow hemp merchandise with THC content material beneath 0.3%.
The measure had stalled in Parliament for months amid inner dissent. Citing public security issues, the Meloni authorities abruptly handed it by way of decree legislation on April 8, sidestepping additional parliamentary debate. Enforcement is fast, though lawmakers have 60 days to ratify the legislation completely. The ultimate choice might fall to President Sergio Mattarella, who can reject or delay the decree. He has but to publicly categorical any place on the ban.
Critics say the ban violates the Italian Structure by creating authorized uncertainty and criminalizing actions beforehand deemed lawful. Authorized specialists argue it additionally runs afoul of the European Conference on Human Rights and EU commerce guidelines.
“With a stroke of the pen, the federal government has determined to remodel hundreds of trustworthy entrepreneurs into criminals,” stated Imprenditori Canapa Italia, a commerce group. Federcanapa, one other hashish affiliation, warned that the decree lacked scientific foundation and a transitional interval, rendering it probably unconstitutional.
EU, trade response
The European Union has repeatedly upheld the legality of low-THC hemp merchandise and CBD below inner market legal guidelines. A 2020 European Court docket of Justice ruling confirmed that CBD just isn’t a narcotic, and member states can’t prohibit its commerce with out clear well being dangers.
Italian hemp teams have lengthy confronted regulatory whiplash. After legalizing hemp with as much as 0.6% THC in 2016, the federal government issued a collection of contradictory circulars and decrees, together with an try in August 2024 to reclassify oral CBD as a narcotic — a transfer quickly blocked by an Italian courtroom.
In March 2025, the European Parliament’s Petitions Committee issued a letter of grievance to Rome after listening to testimony from Canapa Sativa Italia, however the European Fee has not but taken formal motion.
As Italy’s authorities presses forward with its crackdown, hemp stakeholders are racing to safe authorized victories and public assist. “The collaboration of all operators is crucial to defend a sector that, lately, has confirmed to be a driver of financial and social growth and a bulwark of the made in Italy,” the group stated, urging stakeholders to “be part of forces and exhibit to the establishments and judges that the world of commercial hemp just isn’t keen to silently undergo illogical and unconstitutional choices.”
