People Move Forward, Politicians Move Backwards: The Struggle for Legalisation Conquers Its First Victories in Italy

After several decades committed to a fruitless prohibitionist policy, some leaders have opened their eyes and realised that perhaps they had taken the wrong path and it is time to change course. In the case of Italy, even the courts are committing to a change in direction. The Constitutional Court has repealed the law passed in 2006 by former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, which equated marijuana to cocaine and heroin. Without going into great detail, the instance stated that the measure was “illegitimate”, rather bluntly. Has the time come for a change?

As in many other countries, the current scenario is preposterous: the only winners are the people that the State tries to hunt down. With marijuana use and cultivation penalised, drug traffickers are the only ones who profit, while citizens like Maddalena Migani, whose taxes go towards sustaining the state’s welfare, have no access to the marijuana that allows her to alleviate the severe pain caused by diseases like multiple sclerosis, from which she suffers.

She has launched a campaign on Change.org to gather signatures in favour of legalisation, and many other citizens like her have gone down to work to try and convince their politicians that they are on the wrong path. Some have already managed to do so. Motivated by the openness already permeating on the other side of the Atlantic and in cases like the city of Turin, where the local Government has approved the legalisation of medicinal marijuana use, other regions of Italy are headed towards legalisation. Step by step, that is true.

The first step, therapeutic use

In early 2014, the Abruzzo region joined Puglia, Tuscany, Liguria, Veneto, Lombardy and Piedmont in changing its laws to allow for medicinal marijuana use. The measure, which had been contested by the government in office in previous cases, seemed to share the same fate. However, the situation took a turn when the Council of Ministers decided not to appeal to the Constitutional Court and give the green light to the amendment. This law, which allows medical specialists and general practitioners to prescribe cannabis-based medication, has put the Government in a difficult position, forcing them to reveal their stance on the issue.

As acknowledged by the Minister of Health herself, Beatrice Lorenzin, therapeutic use of cannabis in Italy is allowed for treating certain diseases, although, in practice, there are still many obstacles, and patients have to complete a lengthy bureaucratic process. Therein lays one of the main problems tripping up the decriminalisation of marijuana in Italy. While regional authorities are moving down the right path, the State stands as an impediment. 

While regional governments are struggling to reach agreements with several institutions to continue investigating the benefits of cannabis-based medication, the high cost of importing medication from other countries depletes their coffers and keeps them from moving forward.

Regional laws collide headlong with national legislation. The division on the issue is such that even politicians from the same party end up going head to head. Even at the heart of the Northern League; when Gianni Fava, adviser on agriculture, shared his opinion on the matter via Twitter, the group’s conservative secretary had to counteract. Fava acknowledged that “prohibition had failed”, while his party’s leader,Matteo Salvini, stated that there was no intention of addressing the issue of marijuana throughout 2014.

Credo valga la pena cominciare a parlarne seriamente. Il proibizionismo ha fallito http://t.co/7HOZQ2z5dj

— Gianni Fava (@GianniFava) enero 6, 2014

Some aim to prevent things from taking their natural course, using trite and outdated arguments, such as that the medicinal benefits of marijuana are not yet proven. Others put the weight on the shoulders of physicians who, with state laws restricting research, can only test directly on their patients. Furthermore, as it often occurs in politics, the positions among health officials seem to be divided. On one hand, there arethose who use cannabis as a ‘secret weapon’ to help their patients, and on the other, those who consider its use to be an imposition. 

Second step: social clubs

Even though this debate has been going on since 2012, year in which the only centre in the country authorised to grow marijuana in Florence was created, there are still many questions in the air. However, many are implementing formulas that have already taken effect in other countries. In the town of Racale, in the Lecce province, Lucia Spiri and Andrea Trisciuoglio have launched the first Cannabis Social Club in Italy. Once again, this is an initiative that has come to confirm that the decriminalisation of marijuana for therapeutic use is a major issue for many.

As written inthe first blog entry of LapianTiamo, the non-profit association that aims to create the social club, they have been overwhelmed by petitions coming from all over the Italian Peninsula. “This shows the urgency of the sick and the importance of our project”. Lucia Spiri knows it all too well. She suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and understands first-hand how important therapeutic use of cannabis can be to mitigate the effects of the disease. As they write, “there is a lot of ignorance and then there is selfishness, which ignores the discomfort and the disease just because it is not directly related to them”. 

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With information from il Post, La Repubblica (and 2), l´Unità, RT (and 2) and La Stampa.