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After a few back-and-forths, Italian authorities may actually kill the country’s CBD sector by simply passing a minor amendment to a major soon-to-be-approved bill, banning hemp flower and its extracts regardless of their THC content.
The amendment to Italy’s new Security Bill, which is expected to go through the country’s parliament in September, had raised concern in the sector when it was announced ahead of the latest European Parliament elections that were held in June.
It was then withdrawn in July only to be included in the bill once again at the beginning of August despite the disconcertment expressed by the industry.
In the past months, many industry members have defined the inclusion of the amendment within Italy’s wider Security Bill as an otherwise inexplicable political propaganda move by the country’s right-wing governing coalition.
A minor propaganda tool
Speaking with CannIntelligence at the end of May, when the amendment was first proposed, Lorenza Romanese, managing director of the European Industrial Hemp Association, said she believed the amendment was introduced ahead of the EU Parliament’s renewal vote and would probably be ditched right afterwards.
The mere presence of this marginal addition to the draft bill, though, constituted a risk, as it would include this proposed ban on hemp flower and hemp flower extracts with a content of less than 2% THC among a series of very important security issues the Italian Parliament was called to vote on.
“These are the last bullets conservative governments in Europe are shooting before a change in the general tendency,” Romanese said. “But in Italy, this was done in such an inconsiderate way that it risks passing as it is.”
Just over two months later, Romanese’s forecast makes perfect sense, as the amendment was actually dropped in July, after the EU vote, but revived shortly afterwards, based on no apparent logic other than pleasing conservative supporters of Italy’s right-wing government.
But a major blow to the industry
This minor amendment responding to dubious security needs, though, may lead to major trouble for businesses in the country’s CBD market, which, according to Italy’s cannabis industry association Federcanapa, is Europe’s fourth biggest, valued at around €200m.
Federcanapa president Beppe Croce said that the ban, if passed, would destroy not only Italy’s so-called light cannabis sector, but also the industry of cosmetics, supplements, flavours and herbal derivatives of the industrial cannabis flower’s non-intoxicating active principles.
Should the amendment pass, along with the law, Croce said, “the Italian government will find itself in a difficult situation with both the Italian and the European justice, and, what is even worse, it won’t be able to prevent our market from being invaded by products legally manufactured in other European countries”.
Not the first attempt
While sacrificing an entire business sector for propaganda purposes may seem unreasonable, this is not the first time Italy has tried to ban CBD.
At the beginning of 2024, a 2023 decree classifying CBD oils as medical drugs, and therefore outlawing them, was last suspended by an administrative tribunal.
The 2023 decree had revoked the suspension of a 2020 decree which classified oral products from cannabis extracts as pharmaceutical substances.
In July 2024, though, a new decree reintroduced the same measure, and industry stakeholders are now likely to appeal against it.
While this complicated pattern of shelving and reviving draft bills which could outlaw CBD in Italy can be interpreted as a sign of the lack of consensus around such measures, sooner or later one of these attempts may successfully land in Parliament and even be approved, resulting in a disastrous impact on the sector.
– Tiziana Cauli CannIntelligence staff
Photo: Leopold Böttcher
