Italian government invokes emergency powers to immediately ban hemp flowers

The Italian government appears to have driven the final nail into the coffin of "cannabis light" in Italy by enacting a blanket ban that could wipe out a a sector estimated at 2 billion euros and affect more than 22,000 workers.

After months of uncertainty, the decision to ban industrial hemp flowers—regardless of their THC content—was fast-tracked through a decree-law, thereby bypassing parliamentary review and accelerating the law’s implementation nationwide.

While legal and political avenues remain open, both at the national level and at the European Union level, the immediate reality is grim: thousands of hemp business owners are now considered criminals under Italian law.

«With this rule, the government is not merely regulating a sector: it is destroying an economic reality, wiping out investments that have built a future, and causing the potential bankruptcy of more than 3,000 businesses, resulting in the loss of 30,000 jobs,» stated the Italian hemp association, Canapa Sativa Italia.

What happened?

On July 31, 2024, the Italian Joint Committees on Constitutional Affairs and Justice approved an amendment to the security bill – Article 18 – which reclassifies all forms of cannabis flowers, including industrial hemp with low THC content, as narcotics.

This controversial amendment criminalizes the cultivation, sale, processing, and export of hemp flowers, leaves, and derivatives, placing them on the same footing as high-THC cannabis, despite their legal status in the EU.

Although the bill faced internal resistance, even within Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s ruling coalition, it was abruptly revived late last week. The government presented it as a decreto-legge (decree-law), a constitutional mechanism reserved for urgent matters. This move allowed the law to bypass further parliamentary debate and take effect immediately.

The decree is currently temporary. Parliament has 60 days to officially enact it as law. In the meantime, the President Sergio Mattarella has the authority to sign it or return it for revision.

Industry Reaction and Legal Response

The Italian hemp industry reacted with outrage, mobilizing legal teams, preparing lawsuits, and organizing public demonstrations.

Giacomo Bulleri and Carlo Alberto Zaina, attorneys representing Federcanapa, argue that Article 18 was specifically designed to shut down the market for hemp flowers, regardless of THC content—an approach that, in their view, violates both Italian constitutional law and international treaties.

«This decree criminalizes an entire agro-industrial sector without scientific justification, legal clarity, or a transition period,» they write. «It violates the principles of legal certainty, fair business practices, and European law.»

Their analysis highlights that the law’s lack of precision contradicts Article 25, paragraph 2, of the Italian Constitution, which requires legal clarity, and fails to take into account non-psychotropic cannabinoids such as CBD, CBG, and CBN, compounds that are widely marketed in the European Union.

Legal challenges at the national and European levels are now considered inevitable.

In a statement released over the weekend, the association Imprenditori Canapa Italia (ICI), another association Italian industry centered on industrial hemp, said: «We are facing an act of unprecedented gravity, which marks a dark chapter for the rule of law, freedom of enterprise, and constitutional guarantees.”.

«With the stroke of a pen, the government has decided to turn thousands of honest entrepreneurs into criminals, guilty only of having practiced a legal profession, paid their taxes regularly, and created jobs.»

«This rule has nothing to do with national security. It is an ideological, punitive, and irresponsible decision that exposes Italy to ridicule on the international stage, undermines the principle of fair competition, and violates the European law and paves the way for lawsuits at a cost of millions of dollars and likely infringement proceedings.